This is a translation of a scriptural meditation from the Russian book, “Day by Day”:
Scripture: “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” (John: 18, 11)
Meditation:
"The Gospel mentions two cups. One was given by the Savior to his disciples at the Last Supper when He said: “This cup is the New Covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke: 22, 20). This cup foreshadowed His death on the cross, the shedding of His pure blood for our sins, and the New Covenant of love which this blood embodied. It was already full of the suffering to come.
"The second cup was given to Him by the Father and signified the suffering which had begun. “Father…take this cup from Me” (Mark: 14, 36), was said at the moment when the entire sin of mankind was laid on the sinless Redeemer and His sacred head bent to the ground under this burden. But soon there followed another exclamation: “Not My will but Thine be done” (Luke: 22, 42). And that will was fulfilled. The cup of redemptive suffering was emptied, and of the cup given at the Last Supper Christians partake again and again, “thus proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Cor: 11, 26).
“All of the faithful are called to participate in His sufferings. The pure blood washes away sins, and by joining in His suffering, the soul is united with Christ and wants to live with Him and for Him. Life for Him also includes an element of suffering, but this suffering, which the apostle even calls a “fiery ordeal”, the soul “does not reject” (1 Pet: 4, 12), because it is sent by the Hand of love and Christ Himself suffers along with it.”
And this is what Lewis writes in “Letters to Malcolm” (letter VIII):
“Your darkness has brought back my own. But…I don’t regret what I have written. I think it is only in a shared darkness that you and I can really meet at present; shared with one another and, what matters most, with our Master. We are not on an untrodden path. Rather, on the main road.”
Dimitry
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love will last forever.” (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8)