“I bless thee in that thou hast deemed me worthy…
that I might take a portion among the martyrs
in the cup of thy Christ.”St. Polycarp
When Vatican II permitted a return to this ancient way of sharing in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, it seems to me the Church provided us with a very powerful symbol to interpret and better understand our call to discipleship. To consider communion from the cup just as “something extra” is to underestimate its significance and its potential. I have found in ministry that to explain the significance of receiving communion from the cup can be a very important means for better understanding our mission. To reflect on the theme of the cup, I will be using the Gospel of Mark.
The theme of discipleship, by which Mark presents Jesus’ followers in both a positive and negative light, constitutes an important narrative line in his story. I will look at certain aspects of discipleship as they appear in Mark’s gospel, beginning with the Gethsemane scene (14:36) in which Jesus prays to the Father asking him if it be possible to “take this cup away.” I will then explore the meaning of the cup which Jesus offers to James and John in chapter 10:38-39 and the cup which Jesus shares with the apostles at the Last Supper (14:23).
Through the image of the “cup” as talked about in each of these passages, we can come to a better understanding of discipleship and a deeper appreciation of the meaning of “sharing the cup” at our Eucharistic celebrations today. Finally, I will suggest what some of the implications of this sharing of the cup might be for ministry today, in light of the cup motif in Mark’s gospel theology.
The Cup in the Gethsemane Scene: Mark 14:36
For a proper understanding of the Gethsemane scene and the reference to the cup mentioned during Jesus’ prayer, it will be necessary to cast our whole discussion within the broader context of the mission of the Son of Man and with the disciples’ failure to understand that mission.
The Gethsemane scene in Mark presents us, on the one hand, with Jesus as he struggles to face “the hour” and, on the other, with the disciples sleeping off on the sidelines, once again not catching the full significance of what was going on in that crucial moment in the mission of Jesus as the “Son of Man.”
This is the most frequent of the three titles which Mark uses in his gospel story to refer to Jesus and is Jesus’ characteristic self-designation. Significantly, it is used on several occasions when referring to the passion: 8:31; 9:31; 10:33.45; 14:21.41.
The intense drama which we are invited to witness and share in this Gethsemane episode, has already gotten underway when Peter made his “confession” of the Messiahship of Jesus at Caesarea Philippi (8:29). Mark tells us quickly, however, that Peter’s understanding of Messiahship was not the same as that held by Jesus. Jesus lets Peter know that his confession is indeed incomplete when he makes what is known as his first passion prediction and refers to the suffering that the “Son of Man” must endure (8:31). By using this title “Son of Man” here, Mark attempts to emphasize another essential aspect of Messiahship often not grasped when using the titles of “Son of God” and the “Christ”. The idea of a suffering Messiah was just too much for Peter and he rejects the notion, which in turn prompts Jesus to accuse him of playing the role of Satan (8:33)! Jesus’ second (9:31-32) and third (10:33-34) passion predictions also speak of the suffering the Son of Man must endure and these equally met with incomprehension and fear on the part of the disciples.[1] The messianic mission of Jesus was not to be fulfilled in the way most people then expected that it would be. The way Jesus was to follow, was the way of Calvary , and it was only after his death on the Cross, that Mark has a Gentile Centurion recognize Jesus as the “Son of God”. Now the title could be appropriately applied to Jesus with no danger of being misunderstood.
After the Last Supper and as the “hour” of his betrayal and handing over to the powers of darkness approached, Jesus retired with his disciples to Gethsemane and withdrew with three of them to pray. In this scene, Jesus is seen as struggling with his fate, praying to the Father and asking him to let the hour pass and to remove the cup. The “hour” is the time which reveals the full identity of his kingship. His prayer at first aims at the elimination of suffering from his messianic ministry, that very suffering which was at the heart of his passion predictions and which was clearly implied with the use of the “Son of Man” title. The request for the passing of the hour and the removal of the cup has every indication of a desire to bypass the cross. In his moment of dread, Jesus would avoid the passion, provided it accorded with God’s will, for he adds, “yet not what I will, but what you will” (14:36). He was struggling with the fulfillment of God’s will, of completing his mission of pouring out his life for all peoples.[2]
R. S. Barbour suggests in his article on “Gethsemane in the Tradition of the Passion,” that what Jesus was up against at this moment of his prayer in the Garden was the confrontation of the total failure of his mission. In the face of death and the breakdown of discipleship, he was at least momentarily questioning the whole purpose and effectiveness of his ministry. He was face to face with the mystery of evil and with its operation in his life and in the world. At this supreme moment of his life he was aware that his very suffering and death for humanity would entail the dissolution of the little community of believers that alone had remained faithful. He was very much alone! Now he had only to rely on the bedrock of God’s fidelity, and so he prays to the Father from the depths of his being, “Abba!”[3]
David M. Stanley, S.J. also casts the prayer of Jesus in relation to the disciples and recalls the theme of the loving shepherd filled with pity and concern for his own. Just before going to the Garden, Jesus had forewarned his disciples that their faith in him would be shaken: “I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be dispersed” (14:27). He interrupts his prayer to return three times to see if the disciples are still together and safe. He finds them asleep, symbolic of their incomprehension of the real character of Jesus’ vocation as the Son of Man.
As Jesus prays, he is seen as moving from the plea to have the hour of suffering pass him by and from an attitude of revulsion toward the cup, through the realization of the necessity of his redemptive death to win strength for his disciples in their testing, to a dynamic and voluntary acceptance of God’s will as he assumes the initiative in going forward to meet his captors.[4]
Even though not explicitly stated in Mark’s gospel, the clear implication is that Jesus symbolically “drank the cup” in the end. In other words, he did assume his messianic mission in the way of the Son of Man, in accepting his chosen fate of suffering and death as a consequence of his mission. Through his lament and prayer in Gethsemane , Jesus came to terms with his identity as a crucified messiah.
Jesus thus came through the test victorious and was later vindicated by God. In “drinking the cup”, Jesus renews his commitment to the will of God, in showing his tenacious dedication to his mission of compassion and service to the point of death (10:45). Now he could say to his disciples: “Rouse yourselves and come along. See! My betrayer is near” (14:42).
The Cup in Mark 10:38-39
Jesus’ prayer and struggle in the Garden which culminated in his acceptance of the Father’s will and of his “drinking of the cup” of suffering and death, contrasts sharply with the disciples who have slept peacefully on the sidelines. As Jesus grappled with the full significance of the “hour” which was upon him, the disciples continue in their lack of understanding. This brings into focus once again in Mark’s gospel the whole issue of discipleship failure, which is one of the themes he develops. I would like to take a brief look at this issue now in light of the “cup motif”, this time as mentioned in chapter 10:38-39.
As Jesus progressed toward Jerusalem
But each instance of Jesus’ predictions of suffering and death was met by resistance or by attitudes of crass arrogance and ambition. The disciples were spiritually blind, unable to grasp the identity of Jesus and the impact of his mission. No where is this clearer perhaps than after the third prediction, when James and John got into a wrangle over positions of power and authority in the kingdom of heaven! Their whole question was an indication that they had missed the point again and were not grasping the true meaning of discipleship. This became clear with Jesus’ question which he proposed to them: “Can you drink the cup I shall drink or be baptized in the same bath of pain as I? (10:38)? When they replied “we can”, Jesus responded: “From the cup I drink of you shall drink; the bath I am immersed in you shall share” (10:39). The complete significance of what Jesus was asking of the disciples becomes clear for the reader of Mark’s gospel, when we see Jesus himself trembling and hesitant in the Garden, asking that “this cup” pass from him (14:26). In the light of the unfolding of the Passion drama, obviously the disciples’ expression of willingness to share the cup of Jesus was not understood in the same terms Jesus was explaining it. Jesus warned the disciples of the need to be constantly on the watch. “Stay awake! You do not know when the appointed time will come” (13:33).[5]
This misunderstanding of the true meaning of discipleship came to a head in the events following the Last Supper. Werner Kelber talks about this discipleship failure as expressed through the drama of the Gethsemane scene. He mentions that just as Jesus pronounces three times in plain terms what to expect from associating with and following after him, on each of the three occasions the disciples only hear what they wanted to hear. And three times at Gethsemane Jesus gives his chosen disciples a chance to endorse the model of a suffering messiah, but each time they let the occasion slip by them and evaded “drinking the cup” which Jesus would eventually drink. Their blindness amounted to and their temptation consisted in the failure to come to terms with the passion Christology.
Kelber also points out that when Jesus comes back to find the disciples sleeping, Jesus reverts to addressing Peter by the name “Simon” (14:37) for the first time since Jesus gave Simon his new name (3:16). He thus was indicating that Peter had failed in his understanding of what it meant to follow Jesus. This misunderstanding about Jesus’ mission and identity which runs through Mark’s gospel story, culminates in the flight of the disciples and the denial of Peter after the arrest.[6]
The passion, then, is both the ultimate revelation of Jesus’ identity and the ultimate test for the disciples. Mark discloses for the reader the “good news” that for every follower of Jesus it is the experience of suffering that guarantees the genuine nature of discipleship, just as for Jesus, the total giving of his life on behalf of others as an act of loving service, was the full expression of his ministry and identity as the son of Man.
The Cup at the Passover Meal (14:23-24)
Between the two references of the “cup” which we have looked at so far, we have the account of the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples. During this farewell meal, the cup is present in a very special way. In the context of the passion narrative, Mark seems to want to use this scene as an interpretation of Jesus’ entire mission and that of the disciples’ stake in it.
In the Last Supper, Jesus interprets the meaning of the bread. First, in the spirit of the Feeding Stories in Mark, he blesses and breaks it, and then gives it to his disciples, identifying it this time as his body. He is clearly saying that the broken loaf of bread is his body (his person) broken and given for them in his death.
But Jesus spends little time in Mark in elaborating over the bread. Rather he moves swiftly into the distribution of the cup and in its interpretation. It is well to remember that the Greek word “potērion”, cup, was “a vessel for drinking, made of clay or metal, wide-mouthed and not at all deep”. It was offered, according to mealtime use, by the head of the family to each diner. To drink from the filled cup symbolized a communion among the guests.[7] At the Passover Meal, three cups were passed around, the last of which was the “cup of blessing” used for the final thanksgiving prayer. It was this cup which Jesus would interpret in a new light and which was later considered as the cup of the Eucharist, or “the Lord’s Cup”. After the required blessing, the head of the family would lift the cup of blessing a hand’s breadth above the table, and with his eyes fixed on the cup would say on behalf of all the prayer of thanksgiving. Jesus then gave a new interpretation to the cup he would share with his disciples. This interpretation refers not so much to the cup, as to its contents, the wine. Along with the figure of the red “blood of grapes” (cf. Gen. 49:11), the cup and its contents, symbolize Jesus’ saving Blood, the instrument by which the new covenant was to be struck through his death and resurrection (14:24). Thus the sacrificial nature of Jesus’ redemptive death stands unequivocally revealed by this symbolic usage. The cup of blessing concluded the meal, just as the breaking of bread had opened it.[8] The interpretative sayings of Jesus emerge then as directly related to the passion events. “Body and Blood” are now the two components of the Christ who gave himself in death, establishing a new covenant between God and his people.
We know from our studies of the Old Testament that blood played a very important role in the establishing of the covenant between God and Israel
For one who has read Mark’s gospel through, we can’t help but recall Jesus’ invitation to James and John to “drink of the cup” of which he would drink. I mention this again, because we must not forget the full significance for the disciples in sharing and drinking of the cup of Blood. This activity united the believer with the fate of Jesus and it evoked the anticipation of the coming of the Son of Man.
But the intimate act of eating and sharing the cup was to be marred by Jesus’ subsequent betrayal to death. Mark refers within the supper scene to Judas’ betrayal, thus indicating to all of us that betrayal is a possibility for anyone who enters into discipleship. All of us who sit at the holy meal must ask ourselves, “Am I myself a betrayal of Jesus?”[9]
Jesus ends the supper scene with a final passion and resurrection prediction, stating that he would not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the banquet of the kingdom (14:25). And so, Mark ends with a note of hope. Jesus’ death would be a redemptive act, drawing together broken humanity and making a covenant with all peoples. His death would not end in defeat, but would result in the coming of the kingdom, where he would once again drink wine triumphantly.
Sharing the Eucharistic Cup: Implications for Discipleship
In his book, David Stanley states that Mark was probably writing for a community either confronted with the prospect of suffering and persecution, or which was actually undergoing some terrible trial. By his teaching and his own suffering, Jesus seeks to comfort them and to hearten those who were called to share in the Passion of their Lord.[10] Just as Jesus is rejected and killed, so too will the community that lives in his name undergo hardships. Mark makes a direction connection between the mission of Jesus and the cross. The Passion of Jesus becomes not only the story of his fate, but of the community’s own struggle with death.
We indeed are called to take up the mission of Christ; but no disciple is ready to proclaim the gospel until he has walked the road to Jerusalem
In the light of these reflections on Mark’s theology of discipleship and its relation to the cup motif, I will now turn to look at our present-day Eucharistic celebration, especially in regard “communion from the cup.”
When offered this cup in the Eucharist, we are making some very strong commitments. It should not be taken lightly. Our “amen” can easily come off like the quick “we can” of James and John when the Lord asked them if they could share his cup? We say “amen”, often without realizing the deep implications of that “so be it!” We cannot disassociate the cup from its inner content; namely, from the Blood of Christ. The Cup of Blood in the Eucharistic context symbolizes the violent death of Jesus, a life “poured out” in loving service. In offering that cup to us, we are confronted with his sacrifice for each of us and we are invited to enter into and to participate actively in the movement of his self-offering. It is an open invitation to share with him the cross of his destiny. We need to ask ourselves if we are willing to take on the sufferings of Christ’s living body today.[11]
Those of us who preside at the Eucharist and offer the cup, must also ask if we can stand worthily as individuals who can indeed sum up the sufferings of Christ’s living body today and offer them to God? Are we in enough solidarity with the suffering of the people to act as their representative in this way? As a Good Shepherd in imitation of Christ, do I know my sheep? Do I hear the cry of the blood in their lives? Am I aware of the many cries which rise from our strife-torn world? Do I hear the cries of desolation of the victims of violence and of abuse, of the victims of war, of those mired in poverty, of the neglected, the outcast and those marginalized by the indifference of governments and communities, the cries of those oppressed under dictatorships, the cries of those excluded due to their color or creed, to their political beliefs, or to their sexual orientation? Do I hold in the cup of suffering at the Eucharistic banquet their blood of suffering?[12]
Am I a compassionate pilgrim walking with those who are in need whether material, physical, psychological, or spiritual? It doesn’t matter where we live or with whom we minister, what matters is that we listen to the cry of the blood in our world and that we gather those cries together in the cup of suffering we offer at the Eucharist. And we bring to the Eucharist our own sufferings and hardships, imposed by the world around us, or as a consequence of our own apostolic commitments. We gather into the cup those moments of misunderstanding, of condemnation, of rejection which are the consequences of our Gospel stance in the face of injustice, or prejudices, and racism.
As we share the Cup in the Eucharist, we are saying that we will continue to share the sufferings of our brothers and sisters. We say that we accept our call to walk compassionately with all those who suffer and that we are willing to take those sufferings upon ourselves, whatever the cost may be, as Christ took ours’ upon himself. Our presence among the poor, the emarginated and the suffering, speaks to them of the loving, compassionate God who has not abandoned them, but who walks along with them, sharing their sorrows and opening up a way to a better life.
To walk with those who suffer is also to be willing to “go the way of Jerusalem
When Jesus invites us to “share his lot” in offering us the “cup of suffering”, our “amen” should not be taken too lightly, lest we drink it to our condemnation (I Cor. 11:27). It implies our baptism in suffering and death. It involves facing all the risks and insecurities the disciples must have felt when they were faced with the unpleasant prospect of “going up to Jerusalem
The celebration of the Eucharist is a privileged moment for better understanding and celebrating discipleship. In it we renew our commitment to “taking up the chalice of salvation and calling upon the name of the Lord” (Psalm 16).
Taking up the chalice, we say our yes to Christ: A “yes” to our mission of creating bonds in a world in pieces; a “yes” to defending and promoting life in the midst of a culture of death; a “yes” to our will to conquer hatred with love; a “yes” to the difficult pilgrimage which “sharing the cup” calls us to. United with Christ in the daily offering of our blood to do God’s will in the untiring service of others, we will be “living chalices” filled with hope and made generous in love, pouring out our lives for many, in the struggle against the suffering of the world. We thus share in the redemptive suffering of Christ.
The blessing Cup we offer at the Eucharistic Table is not only a Cup of Suffering. The Cup of Suffering becomes a Cup of Hope, as the blood of the suffering of this world is mingled with and becomes the Blood of Christ. We know that the powers of darkness have been overcome and that suffering and death do not have the last word. Life awaits us after suffering and death and a new creation is being born. In the Eucharist we celebrate Christ’s victory, which is now our victory. We share a cup meant to be drunk finally in the kingdom of God
Drinking from the Cup
To drink from the Chalice as we gather around the Eucharistic Table is an important symbol and a special moment and is to drink from the wellspring of our Precious Blood Spirituality. As we raise the Cup of Blessing, the Cup of Suffering and the Cup of Hope, we do so in thanksgiving to the Lord who has taken our history up into the Paschal Mystery. Our history, with its struggles and with its failures, its sorrows and its joys, become Salvation History. As we drink from the Cup our lives are filled with God’s love and we are strengthened for our mission of offering the Cup of Redemption, the Cup of love and of hope to quench the thirst and to satisfy the hunger of our fellow sojourners.
Each time we celebrate the Eucharist we are also called into “baptism.” Baptism is a word taken from the trade of cloth dying. To change the color of a garment it was placed in the boiling dye. To see whether the color had yet “taken,” the cloth had to be lifted out, inspected, then dipped again into the mixture. The word the Greeks used for repeatedly dipping the cloth into the dye was “baptism.” Thus in the daily celebration of the Eucharist we are dipped again and again. We are washed in His Blood, until we are “whitened in the Blood of the Lamb!” (Revelations 7:14)
So, each time we gather around the Eucharistic Table we dip our lives once again into the mixture, into the STORY OF CHRIST, and we need to continue to do so repeatedly “until the color takes” in our lives. We not only gather to HEAR the story, but to BE IMMERSED IN THE STORY. The community, bonded in Covenant, IS now the on-going LOVE STORY of God. It is the ritual of our passing over into God. Thus we celebrate ritually our participation in the Paschal Mystery.
Sealed in the Blood: The Cup
On proclaiming our obedience to the Word of God, we too are sprinkled with the blood, the consecrated Blood of Jesus which we receive when partaking of the Cup. But it is Blood consumed AFTER we have given our consent to what we have heard proclaimed in the Liturgy of the Word. This time the covenant will be sealed in the Blood of Jesus Himself. It is a Blood poured out in sacrifice for us. It is Blood which symbolizes the entire way of life he lived as well as for what He died. In a way, the life Jesus lived was a constant “death”, a “generous giving of Himself despite the cost, so that other might have life in abundance.
As we drink the blood we take it within ourselves. We drink the story into ourselves. We drink ourselves into that Story. And so, just as with the covenant at Mt. Sinai
We pass-over into God when we consciously agree to become a community fashioned after the lifestyle and the vision of Jesus Christ, a vision of universal communion forged in love and compassion.
The Eucharistic Cup becomes an important sign for us today. St. John Crysostomus wrote: "We stain the doors of our Temple
Barry Fischer, C.PP.S.
A prayer: “HIDDEN TREASURE”
Make peace with pain.
Its coming, stealthy or sudden,
is certain as winter’s sunset.
A chosen companion on our lifetime journey,
entrusted with blessed task to do.
Make friends with pain.
Embrace its searing scalpel touch
waiting to mine a cross of gold
buried deep within and waiting
your choice of fuller, richer life.
(by Sr. Maria Corona Crumback, I.H.M., in Ashes to Easter, by Robert Fr. Morneau, A Crossword Book, 1996, p. 85-86)
Donald Senior, The Passion of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. Michael Glazier, Inc., Wilmington , Delaware
Frank J. Matera, Passion Narratives and Gospel Theologies. Paulist Press, New York
Robert J. Schreiter, C.PP.S., In Water and in Blood: A Spirituality of Solidarity and Hope. Messenger Press, Carthagena , Ohio
Joyce Rupp, The Cup of our Life. Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, 1997.
Henri J.M. Nouwen, Can You Drink the Cup? Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, 1996.
[1] Werner H. Kelber, The Passion in Mark. Fortress, Philadelphia, 1976, p. 50.
[2]Ibid., pp. 43-45
[3]R. S. Barbour, “Gethsemane in the Tradition of the Passion,” New Testament Series 16. University Press, Cambridge
[4] David M. Stanley, S.J., Jesus in Gethsemane . Paulist Press, N.Y., 1980, pp. 126-154
[5] L. Goppelt’s article on “poterion” in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, pp. 148-158.
[6]Werner H. Kelber, The Passion in Mark.Fortress, Philadelphia
[7] Xavier Léon-Dufour, The Dictionary of the New Testament. Harper and Row, San Francisco
[8] L. Goppelt, “The Cup at the Lord’s Supper”, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, pp. 154-155.
[9]Vernon Philadelphia
[10] David M. Stanley, S.J., Jesus in Gethsemane . Paulist Press, New York
[11] Raymond Moloney, S.J., “The Eucharistic Cup”, The Clergy Review, Vol. LXXI, no. 6, June, 1986, pp. 212-215.
[12] Robert J. Schreiter, C.PP.S., In Water and in Blood: A Spirituality of Solidarity and Hope, chapter 6, “The Cup of Suffering and the Cup of Blessing, pp. 56-65.
