“Let Him make demands on you”

God loves us infinitely more than you love yourself. So let him make demands on you. (The Forge, 813)

Our Lord knows our limitations, our individualism and our ambition. He knows it is difficult for us to forget ourselves and give ourselves to others. He knows very well what it feels like not to find love and to discover that those who say they follow him only do so in a half-hearted way. Just think of those striking scenes, described to us by the evangelists, in which we see the Apostles full of worldly ambitions and merely human plans. Yet Jesus has chosen them; he keeps them close to him and entrusts them with the mission he has received from his Father.

He has called us too and asks us, as he asked James and John: “Are you ready to drink the cup" — that cup which means giving yourself fully to the will of the Father — "which I am going to drink?" Possumus!: “Yes! We are ready!" [1] Is the reply of John and James. Are you and I really ready to carry out, in everything, the will of our Father God? Have we given our Lord our whole heart, or are we attached to ourselves and our interests and comfort and self‑love? Is there anything in our lives out of keeping with our Christianity, something which makes us unwilling to mend our ways? Today we are given a chance to set things straight. (Christ is passing by, 15)

[1] Matt 20:22: Potestis bibere calicem quem ego bibiturus sum? Possumus!

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