Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you.”  Our Lord is a true king. He has true authority over us, much more so than any earthly king, but He does not rule like they do—not by force, but by love.
To rule means to have power over the will of somebody else. And our Lord has that power, but not like the kings of the earth who have dominion over others. They can make them do what they want by force, by violence, by coercion.
Our Lord has that power, but it’s a power of love. What does that mean? He makes us do what He wants—how? By loving us first to get us to love Him back. He doesn’t simply, through violence, make us do His will, make us love Him. He loves us first to compel, in that way, our hearts to love Him back, because that’s how we are made, that’s how we are created. We naturally love those who love us.
Our Lord loves us first, and that’s the way He compels us, so to speak, to love Him back.
And we see that in the gospel also because that chalice of suffering, which is linked to His rule—right? It’s on the cross that His kingship is revealed. It’s on the cross that our Lord accepts that title, “Jesus, King of the Jews”; He doesn’t object, doesn’t run away from it.
But in the gospel, we see that kingship is linked with His suffering, and because the disciples will have to drink that chalice of suffering, He drinks it first—right?
So our Lord says, “You will indeed drink the chalice that I will drink.” He drinks it first.
It’s like parents who, you know, with their kids, to get them to eat something, you know, perform the action. They put the spoon to their own mouths to show the kids what they should do, and that’s motivating for children. That’s motivating for us when we see our Lord do what we’re supposed to do.
When we watch Him suffer and give His life for us, we naturally, seeing that love for us, are helped and compelled—to use that word—to do the same for Him.
That’s why it’s so important to often contemplate our Lord’s suffering for us. That’s what the saints tell us. The meditation on the passion and then the crucifixion of our Lord is so powerful. Why? Because it draws us to that love. Seeing that love for us, experiencing that love for us, opens us up to that love, impels us to give back that same love.
That’s why, again, meditating on the passion is so important, and through the rosary especially. The rosary is powerful because it’s a constant, daily meditation on the life of our Lord: joyful, luminous, sorrowful, glorious life of our Lord.
And two quotes from popes, just to close this little reflection, who tell us about the importance and the power of meditating the life of our Lord through the rosary. So Pius XII and then Benedict XVI.
Pius tells us: “Truly, from the frequent meditation on the Mysteries, the soul little by little and imperceptibly draws and absorbs the virtues they contain, and is wondrously enkindled with a longing for things immortal, and becomes strongly and easily impelled to follow the path which Christ Himself and His Mother have followed.”  We contemplate, we look at what Christ did, and we’re strongly and easily impelled to follow the path which Christ Himself and His Mother have followed. Christ drank the chalice of suffering. If we contemplate that with Our Lady, we will be strongly drawn and impelled to do the same: drink His chalice.
Benedict XVI says the same thing: “Those who, like Mary and with her, cherish and ponder the mysteries of Jesus assiduously increasingly assimilate His sentiments and are conformed to Him.”  We see the actions that our Lord performs. And again, as an example to us, He drinks that chalice first so that we can watch Him, look at Him, ponder Him, and do the same for Him.
So our Lord has true rule, true kingship, much more than earthly kings, but different than earthly kings. He loves us first to make us love Him back.
Let’s ponder that love frequently, especially by praying the rosary, so as to be able to drink that chalice together with Him.
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.