We leave Our Lord's words to speak for themselves in our podcast today, looking closer at the spiritual implication of his message rather than digging into scholarly insights on the text. The former exercise proves deeply important for our interior life, especially in periods of suffering. Understanding that the role James and John wish to possess is actually filled by two thieves leads us to recognize that heavenly success often masquerades as earthly failure and that even when we find it difficult to imagine fruits from our sufferings we can still hold fast to the conviction that heaven knows and honors our faithfulness.