Today's Gospel March 12 2020 with comment

From the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Matthew 20,17-28.
At that time, while going up to Jerusalem, Jesus took the Twelve aside and along the way he said to them:
«Here we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of man will be handed over to the high priests and scribes, who will condemn him to death
and they will deliver it to the pagans to be ridiculed and scourged and crucified; but on the third day he will rise again. "
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached him with his children, and bowed down to ask him something.
He said to her, "What do you want?" He replied, "Tell these children of mine to sit one on your right and one on your left in your kingdom."
Jesus replied: «You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink? » They say to him, "We can."
And he added, "You will drink my cup; but it is not for me to grant that you sit on my right or on my left, but it is for those for whom it was prepared by my Father ».
The other ten, hearing this, became indignant with the two brothers;
but Jesus, calling them to himself, said: «The leaders of the nations, you know it, dominate over them and the great ones exercise power over them.
Not so will it have to be among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you will make himself your servant,
and whoever wishes to be the first among you will become your slave;
just like the Son of man, who did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life in ransom for many ».

Saint Theodore Studita (759-826)
monk in Constantinople

Catechesis 1
Serve and be pleasing to God
It is our role and an obligation for us to make you, according to our strength, the object of our every thought, of all our zeal, of every care, with word and action, with warnings, encouragement, exhortations , incitement, (...) so that in this way we can put you at the rhythm of the divine will and guide you towards the end that is proposed to us: be pleasing to God. (...)

He who is immortal has spontaneously shed his blood; he was tied up by the soldiers, he who created the army of angels; and he was dragged before justice, he who must judge the living and the dead (cf. Ac 10,42; 2 Tim 4,1); the Truth was put before false testimonies, was slandered, hit, covered with spit, suspended on the wood of the cross; the Lord of glory (cf. 1 Co 2,8) suffered all the outrages and all the sufferings without needing proof. How could it have happened if, even as a man he was sinless, on the contrary, he snatched us from the tyranny of sin for which death had entered the world and had taken over with the deception of our first father?

So if we undergo some tests, there is nothing surprising, since this is our condition (...). We too must be outraged and tempted, and afflicted because of our will. According to the definition of the fathers, there is an outpouring of blood; since this is being a monk; so we must conquer the kingdom of heaven by imitating the Lord in life. (...) Commit yourselves zealously to your service, your only thought, far from being slaves to men, you serve God.