Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached him

2 Cor 4,7-15; Ps 125; Mt 20,20-28
25 JULY

In the things of his Father, never has Jesus allowed anyone to interfere. He never allowed it even to his Mother. But everyone can turn to him with prayer. The decision to listen or not to listen is his alone. This firmness is necessary to every minister of the Lord and also to every one of his disciples or Christians.

After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them (Lk 2,46-50). Then his mother and his brothers came to him but were unable to join him because of the crowd. He was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you.” He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it” (Lk 8,19-21).

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” (And) Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2,1-5). But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near. So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. No one works in secret if he wants to be known publicly. If you do these things, manifest yourself to the world.” For his brothers did not believe in him. So Jesus said to them, “My time is not yet here, but the time is always right for you. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I testify to it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, because my time has not yet been fulfilled.” After he had said this, he stayed on in Galilee. But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, he himself also went up, not openly but (as it were) in secret (Jn 7,2-10).

From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (Mt 16,21-23).

No one must change, transform and alter the things of his Father. As He lends to the Father the utmost total pure obedience, so every other man must lend his utmost total pure obedience. He can show every man how to obey. Everything else is governed by the Father in his Holy Spirit.

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached him with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.” Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?” They said to him, “We can.” He replied, “My cup you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left (, this) is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus summoned them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Disciples are currently experiencing a precarious balance. Everyone has his own project hidden in the heart. The balance is preserved until the project is unveiled. Jesus intervenes by announcing to them that in his reign one must think the opposite way, not from above but from below. The greatest is the one who makes himself the smallest. The highest is the one who is placed in the last place. He is useful to the kingdom who consecrates all his life to it.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, make us useful to the kingdom in the gift of our life to it.