When I think of James and John, affectionately nicknamed by Jesus as “the Sons of Thunder,” I often think of the story in which they (or their mother, depending on the version) petition Jesus for the right to sit at his right side and at his left, when he comes into his kingdom. It is easy for me to imagine them jostling each other back and forth, and the other disciples making offended noises at their audacity. I imagine them as young and lighthearted; competitive, loud and confident, but also very naive. They love Jesus and are faithful, but also they have no earthly clue what they are asking, or what will be asked of them.
But James, our patron saint, was also one of the three friends whom Jesus chose to witness the Transfiguration. Even though the three still probably didn’t understand what they were seeing, or what it meant, I am certain that experience changed them, and prepared them for the challenges that lay ahead.
Eventually James, like John the Baptist, was beheaded by Herod; he was the first of the apostles to suffer death for the sake of Christ and the Gospel. Indeed he did drink the cup that Jesus drank, though not at all how he imagined.
Imagine your own discipleship, and the things you asked or imagined of God when you were a ‘newborn’ in Christ. New faith is often full of energy and zeal; it is only with time walking alongside Christ – in the day to day activities of life; the ups and downs; the wonders and disappointments; the challenges and sorrows – that we begin to really understand what it means to be called to drink the cup that Jesus drinks.
As we look towards the year ahead – a year sure to be filled with many changes – I pray that our patron will intercede for us to have the courage and the faith that he did; to walk alongside Christ in love and discipleship; to witness the Gospel and to share the cup of suffering as well as of triumph and joy.
Mother Amanda
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