Chalice (Cup)
See also: Passion (Redemption), Cross, To Crucify, Crucifixion.
The terms "chalice" and "cup" are used, in the Gospel and in the work of Maria Valtorta, as images representing the total sufferings that Jesus Christ must endure to accomplish Redemption.
In "The Gospel as it was revealed to me"
- I tell you that you do not know what you are asking! Can you perhaps drink the chalice that I will drink? - "We can, Lord." ([1]-[2]) and [3]
- Note from Jesus to Maria Valtorta: "Strongly mark the point: '... you will certainly drink from my chalice.' In the translations one reads: 'my chalice.' I said: from my chalice and not 'my chalice.' No man could have drunk my chalice. I alone, the Redeemer, had to drink my chalice in its entirety. To my Disciples, to my imitators and to those who love me, it is certainly permitted to drink from this chalice where I have drunk, a drop, a sip, or the sips that God's favor allows them to drink. But no one will ever drink the entire chalice as I did. It is therefore correct to say: 'from my chalice' and not 'my chalice.'[4]
In other works by Maria Valtorta
The Notebooks of 1943
- Catechesis of July 1st : What do you believe? That my chalice was only one of pain? No, creatures who love me. The Christ – he says it to give you courage – underwent Temptation before you.
Do you think there was only the one in the desert? No. That time, Satan was defeated with the great means opposed to his great attempts. But I tell you in truth that I, the Christ, was tempted other times. The Gospel does not say so. But as the Beloved wrote: 'If every one of the miracles performed by Jesus were to be recounted, the earth itself would not be able to contain the books that would be written.'[5]