“Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, adoring and asking something of him. Who said to her: ‘What wilt thou?’ She saith to him: ‘Say that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom.’ And Jesus answering, said: ‘You know not what you ask. Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink?’ They say to him: ‘We can.’ He saith to them: ‘My chalice indeed you shall drink; but to sit on my right hand or left hand, is not mine to give to you, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father.’”
The followers of Jesus, still not understanding what His reign entails, leap at the opportunity for position in what they thought would be His reign, an earthly kingship after the resurrection: “His empire shall be multiplied, and there shall be no end of peace: he shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom; to establish it and strengthen it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth and for ever: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this” (Isaias 9:7). St. Salome’s love for her sons made her bold, as love does, and she goes to Jesus with a bold request. The disciples had a preeminent position, and had been told that they would reign on thrones: “When the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28), with these two and St. Peter being the inmost circle of Jesus’ followers. Thinking His kingdom was dawning due to their approach to Jerusalem: “The law shall go forth out of Sion, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem” (Micheas 4:2), the brothers and their mother, not wanting St. Peter to surpass them, attempt to usurp the closest position to Him possible. His Kingship was still not understood: “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36), but is rather shown forth in a destruction of sin, that no stain of evil may enter into His presence: “Let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with clean water” (Hebrews 10:22). To sit at His right hand, in one aspect, is to come with a lover’s heart and a mind refined by truth, which is by far the better, and to sit on His left is to do what is ordinary in great justice, but in either path the stones of sin must be removed: “Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the people, make the road plain, pick out the stones, and lift up the standard to the people” (Isaias 62:10). Now, to be a great saint is a highly commendable desire, but to do it at the expense of fraternal harmony is imperfect. Jesus, however, knows that this request came from a place of love, and so He tells them that they don’t realize what they are asking for. One way of thinking of this is that the Lord had called them both to His right hand, loving His twelve as a mother loves her children, or as the sun shines on all people: “That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45), each being handed an extraordinary grace, and yet they desired the lesser good of the left hand. Or, to think of the plunder takes the soldier’s mind away from the fight: “I saw among the spoils a scarlet garment exceeding good, and two hundred sicles of silver, and a golden rule of fifty siclces: and I coveted them, and I took them away” (Josue 7:21), and to think of heavenly glory moves your mind away from the present love: “This is the day which The Lord hath made: let us be glad and rejoice therein” (Psalm 117:24). Or, it could be to be a forefront saint, but they didn’t understand the trials the devil enacts upon those that would be great saints, and so they asked to be king’s captains without realizing that this calls for much warfare: “These are the names of the valiant men of David: Jesbaham sitting in the chair was the wisest chief among the three, he was like the most tender little worm of the wood, who killed eight hundred men at one outset” (2 Kings 23:8). Thus, the cup that Christ is to drink is that of the cross: “For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup of strong wine full of mixture” (Psalm 74:9), and if one is to be united to Jesus Christ, thus sitting on His throne: “To him that shall overcome, I will give to sit with me in my throne: as I also have overcome, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Apocalypse 3:21), this includes being united to Christ crucified: “With Christ I am nailed to the cross” (Galatians 2:19), for what is precious comes at a great cost, and to become love incarnate requires more work, sweat, and toil than many great works of art, yet the finished masterpiece is greater than a museum full of beautiful artistry: “And now, O Lord, thou art our father, and we are clay: and thou art our maker, and we all are the works of thy hands” (Isaias 64:8). They ask for glory, He shows that this is not attained easily, for a soldier does not sit at the hand of his king without having earned it: “After him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three valiant men that were with David when they defied the Philistines, and they were there gathered together to battle. And when the men of Israel were gone away, he stood and smote the Philistines till his hand was weary, and grew stiff with the sword” (2 Kings 23:9-10). Pray for the grace, Theophila, to be a glorious saint, knowing that the trials and sufferings that will bring you there will be great, but sustaining love will be greater: “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it” (Canticle 8:7). So eager were Saints John and James that they got what they asked for: “All things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive” (Matthew 21:22), which was to be made worthy of martyrdom: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Psalm 115:15), as St. James was beheaded by Herod, and St. John bore the weight of being present at the passion, was assaulted, and exiled, bearing a white martyrdom and having a martyr’s heart, for there is no greater testament to the truth or the love of God than to go to one’s death before turning away from the Beloved: “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held” (Apocalypse 6:9). When Jesus, however, does not name those that will sit at His left and right hand in His kingdom, this is so that none may despair of sitting so close to Him in heaven, but may rather seek to be like unto the Apostles, the Doctors, the Martyrs, the greatest of the great saints, letting love fashion them into the greatest possible expression of love that they can become: “Being confident of this very thing, that he, who hath begun a good work in you, will perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). Thus, He didn’t disparage the brothers, saying they wouldn’t sit there, neither did He say they would, which would keep others from aiming for a legendary love. The first rank, the inmost circle of heaven, is for the greatest lovers, those who burned the hottest with divine love. It can be mentioned again that the closest place to Jesus is not in the quest for glory, but in the immersion into His love, leaving the garment of glory behind that the door of the heart may be opened to Him: “I have put off my garment, how shall I put it on? …I arose up to open to my beloved: my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers were full of the choicest myrrh” (Canticle 5:5), myrrh representing acts of love for God and neighbor. Therefore, Theophila, ignore even glory, think not twice on how bright your light will shine in heaven, but simply love, love and be loved, let your heart sing and burn with the fire of love, for this is your portion, and this will draw you to the throne of the King: “While the king was at his repose, my spikenard sent forth the odour thereof” (Canticle 1:11).