After the wrong request of James and John, Jesus “called to himself” the Twelve. Here the typical verb of following resounds. For the disciples it is a new call, which actualizes the meaning hidden in the first. Even then Jesus had called “those he wanted to himself and they went to him” and he appointed twelve to be with him (cf. Mk 3: 13-14). Going to Jesus to be with him, approaching the throne of his grace, as we read in Hebrews 4, requires sharing his baptism, drinking from his chalice, becoming servants as he served. Not to get the first places, but so that the multitudes are welcomed to the right and to the left of the Lord, in his glory. Jesus, in fact, identifies himself with the logic of the servant of which Isaiah speaks in the first reading: he will justify many and in this way he will be able to see a large offspring. Suffering and death become a fruitful womb that generates new life. What we too, like James and John, must desire is not to settle, according to old logic, in places of power and prestige, but to allow ourselves to be regenerated as new people by the baptism in which we are immersed, by the chalice in which we quench our thirst, sharing the a way of becoming a servant of Jesus. Whoever knows how to live the service of opening up to others, with the gift of his own life, the space of the Kingdom really sits on his right.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey