Pieces of the Puzzle

When the mother of James and John asks Jesus to give her sons a special place in his Kingdom, Jesus responds,  “Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?”  (Matthew 20:22).   “Can we drink the cup?” is the most challenging and radical question we can ask ourselves.  The cup is the cup of life, full of sorrows and joys.  Can we hold our cups and claim them as our own?  Can we lift our cups to offer  blessings to others, and can we drink our cups to the bottom as cups that bring us salvation?

Keeping this question alive in us is one of the most demanding spiritual exercises we can practice.

Often we think that we do not know enough to be able to teach others.  We might even become hesitant to tell others what we know, out of fear that we won’t have anything left to say when we are asked for more.

This mind-set makes us anxious, secretive, possessive, and self-conscious.  But when we have the courage to share generously with others all that we know, whenever they ask for it, we soon discover that we know a lot more than we thought.  It is only by giving generously from the well of our knowledge that we  discover how deep that well is.