I have been reading a beautiful Lenten reflection book called A Time of Renewal: Daily Reflections for the Lenten Season by Mother Mary Francis. I love Mother Mary because she has a beautiful way of “wringing out scripture”. If you have read scripture a lot, then you know that each time you read the bible passage a new word or phrase seems to pop out at you each time. The saints remind us that one of the many treasures of Scripture is that it’s so full of imagery and connections that you can spend your whole lifetime reading it each day and never reach the point of exhausting all of its surprising gems. Mother Mary Francis is superb at this!
“You are the ones who have stood by Me in My trials; and just as My Father has granted Me a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” -Luke 22:28-29. This passage has never stuck out to me before because the drama of what is about to happen overshadows the power of this statement. This moment is just before Jesus heads out to the Garden of Gethsemane. This is just before Jesus warns Peter that Satan has asked to “sift the apostles like wheat”. This is just before Jesus tells Peter that He specifically prayed for Peter to have faith and be strong. This is just before Jesus warns Peter that he will turn away from Jesus…but will turn back! We have a lot looming on the horizon, but Mother Mary pauses and asks us to ponder the phrase, “You are the ones who have stood by Me in My trials”. Such short phrase but it is packed with so much! Mother Mary asks, “Did the apostles stay by Jesus in His trials up to this point?” No. “Would the apostles stay by Jesus during His passion and death?” Only one did…John. So what was Jesus talking about? Mother Mary points out that Jesus is talking in a future tense in this whole passage. What the apostles would do. How they would be rewarded. What Peter would do. How Peter would repent. When we apply the future tense to this passage everything begins to make sense!
All of the apostles (except Judas) would stay with Jesus either in His passion (like John) or unite their own passions (and deaths) with His own. Boom.
All the Apostles (besides John) would eventually be martyred defending the Faith. Defending Jesus. Uniting their suffering with Christ’s: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” – Colossians 1:24. They would stay with Him when it mattered. They gave their sufferings up willing to make up for whatever Christ’s was lacking. Redemptive Suffering. Suffering with a purpose. This explains the verse pretty well…but could we wring more out of it??
Let’s pause. We can see this scene playing out vividly before us. The apostles bewildered about, “When did we ever see any big trials of Jesus?” Peter unbelieving that he would deny Christ. Jesus warning them for the umpteenth time what was waiting around the corner….the good, the bad, the ugly….and yet they were once again still clueless.
This made me think…why would Jesus be wasting such precious time reminding them all of this when He knew they would not understand?
Then it hit me….Christ is the Living Word of God. Jesus is scripture. Scripture can be cryptic until God reveals Himself to us in it.
Scripture comforts us when we need it. We can read on verse of story again and again and again and miss the most obvious things….but on the 100th time we read or hear that verse again…something unlocks.
Christ is the Living Word of God. This was why so many could not understand His parables. The Spirit had to unlock the meaning when we needed it, otherwise it would have been wasted on us swine.
Jesus was laying the foundation in the verse. He was seeding His garden. Just like what scripture does for us. It gives us a firm ground to cling to. A fertile soil to spring from. He foretells of what the apostles would be able to cling to during their trials (and they were coming!): that they had already won the race! They would not give in at the last moment in weakness and betray Christ during their martyrdom like they had before during his….they would succeed! I am sure that this is one of the revelations that the Holy Spirit gave them on Pentecost. What better balm could Jesus give the ailing but the perfect medicine to ease the pain of their shame? Pentecost unlocked something inside the apostles and they could finally see the big picture of what Jesus was saying all along. That yes, they would falter in their faith and let Him down…but they would be there when He truly needed them. They were to be given a second chance.
In these final moments of Jesus with his apostles, we get to see yet again what kind of God we serve. What is God willing to do for us so that we can be prepared before we enter into our temptations and trials. What did Jesus do?? He left them a love letter. A message of hope and forgiveness written in to one little verse: “You are the ones who have stood by Me in My trials” . This phrase would be one that they could cling to in their moment of need. After Pentecost, once the scales were removed the apostles could now look back and no longer just see their betrayal of Jesus. No. They could now see that Jesus foretold them there was a way they could be with Him in all His trials. One moment does not define us. God is the God of Mercy. He exists outside of space and time. If we are His body….so do we!
So…..”How were the apostles with Jesus during all His temptations and trials when they were not present at Calvary??”
Now this next part may blow your mind….but stay with me!
The Catholic Church teaches (based on interpretation of Scripture and the holy teachings that were passed down by the Apostolic Traditions) that during the consecration of the Eucharist we are transported to Calvary.
At each mass, we are made present to Jesus’ sacrifice to the Father for the sins of the world at Calvary.
We know this because at the Last Supper Jesus tells the apostles during the very first the Eucharist that they should “do this in memory of me”. The word they used in the original language of the scripture meant to “make present again” but in our translations it became “in memory of me”. The apostles could not possibly understand at the moment of the Last Supper what they were witnessing. What Jesus was really saying…but at Pentecost they did. The scales were finally gone from their eyes. They now had all the gifts of the Spirit. They could see the big picture!
As priests in the New Covenant, each time they consecrated the bread and wine at mass, they were being brought to Calvary at the moment of Jesus’ sacrifice. This little phrase hints at the final gift that Jesus had to give them….the one that would make up for all of their shame in leaving him alone to die: they were going to be allowed to be present with Him in All His temptations and sufferings. Each time they celebrated the Eucharist together they were with their Lord in His time of need. Jesus makes all things new. He removes shame. He washes away sin. He is the God of Mercy and second chances. Why wouldn’t He give this gift to the apostles and to us? Why would He not want us to celebrate in real time the moment He defeated Satan??
Jesus’ final gift…His most beautiful gift to the apostles was the ability for them to make up for their last betrayal of Him. They could be present at His Passion: at the very moment, He laid down His life for us all. Be with Him. Not hiding in the shadows but exposed in His Light. They could now be praying to the Father for Jesus to have strength during His trials (like He does for us in ours). Unite their sufferings with His in His death on the cross (like He does for us during ours).
Jesus true to His nature continued to care for His beloveds right up to the end. He left a trail for them to find their way back to Him and be with Him for always. He comforted the apostles before they even knew they needed comforting! He will comfort us too, if we but seek the Truth and turn back to Him.
So let us pray together:
Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner. Amen.
Clinging to the Little Way 