Reflection for the 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time

You get a call. A group of your neighbours are getting together to see if they can raise money to help families in crisis or organize to clean up a park or paint the community centre. Your calendar is pretty full already. You’ve just been handed the cup that Jesus drinks.

You’re walking through the school yard on your way to class when you see some students taunting some poor kid who doesn’t quite measure up to his tormentors’ standard of “coolness.” The victim is near tears, humiliated for everything from his or her wardrobe to the kid’s speech pattern. You have been confronted with the cup that Jesus drinks.

You reach your breaking point with someone. They’ve messed up again and you have to bail them out — again. Your patience is at an end; you have no more time for this. Take a breath — and a take a long pull from the cup that Jesus drinks.

We all experience those “wow” moments, those “epiphany” experiences when we come to realize the implications of a situation we have barely noticed on innocent people, when it dawns on us that we are unwittingly contributing to an unjust or painful situation, when we are shaken to realize (finally!) that circumstances we’ve dismissed as overblown or a “hoax” need to be taken seriously.

If we’re to truly follow Jesus, we can’t put off drinking from his cup indefinitely. The cup that Jesus drinks comes in many forms. It’s handed to us in every situation that demands more than we think we can give, that overwhelms our own confidence to do the right, Jesus-like thing. Yet, if we’re willing to take up Jesus’ cup, more often than not we’ll be surprised by what the grace of God enables us to do. Sometime this week, the chalice that Jesus drinks will be passed on to.   Let’s not let it pass us by.