In
the meanwhile our divine Lord with the eleven Apostles pursued their way across
the torrent of Cedron (John 18, 1) to mount Olivet and entered the garden of
Gethsemane. Then He said to all the Apostles: “Wait for Me, and seat yourselves here while I go a short distance from
here to pray (Matth. 26, 36) ; do you also pray, in order that you may not
enter into temptation" (Luke 22:40).
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| Jesus telling them "wait for me here |
what they should see Him suffer that night, that Satan would assail them to sift and stir them up by his false suggestions; for the Pastor (as prophesied) was to be ill treated and wounded and the sheep were to be dispersed (Zach. 13, 7). Then the Master of life, leaving the band of eight Apostles at that place and taking with Him saint Peter, saint John, and saint James, retired to another place, where they could neither be seen nor heard by the rest (Mark 14, 33).
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| Christ with the three apostles in another place |
Being with the three Apostles He raised his eyes up to the eternal Father
confessing and praising Him as was his custom; while interiorly He prayed in fulfilment
of the prophecy of Zacharias, permitting death to approach the most innocent of
men and commanding the sword of divine justice to be unsheathed over the
Shepherd and descend upon the Godman with all its deathly force. In this prayer
Christ our Lord offered Himself anew to the eternal Father in satisfaction of
his justice for the rescue of the human race; and He gave consent, that all the
torments of his Passion and Death be let loose over that part of his human
being, which was capable of suffering. From that moment He suspended and
restrained whatever consolation or relief would otherwise overflow from the impassible (His divinity) to the passible (his humanity) part of his being, so that in this
dereliction his passion and sufferings might reach the highest degree possible. The eternal Father granted these
petitions and approved this total sacrifice of the sacred humanity.
And
immediately He began to be sorrowful and feel the anguish of his soul and
therefore said to the Apostles: “My soul
is sorrowful unto death” (Mark 14, 34). The Lord permitted this sorrow to
reach the highest degree both naturally and miraculously possible in his sacred
humanity. This sorrow penetrated not only all the lower faculties of his human
life in so far as his natural appetites were concerned; but also all the
highest faculties of his body and soul, by which He perceived the inscrutable
judgments and decrees of the divine justice, and the reprobation of so many,
for whom He was to die. This was indeed by far the greater source of his
sorrow, as we shall see farther on. He did not say that He was sorrowful on
account of his death, but unto death; for the sorrow naturally arising from the
repugnance to the death He was about to undergo, was a minor fear.
He
showed thereby his charity toward the Apostles, who were with Him and were now
much disturbed by perceiving, that his hour of suffering and death, which He
had so often and in so many ways foretold them, was now at hand. This interior
disturbance and fear confounded and confused them without their daring to speak
of it. Therefore the most loving Saviour sought to put them more at rest by
manifesting to them his own sorrow unto death. By the sight of his own
affliction and anxiety they were to take heart at the fears and anxieties of
their own souls. There was still another mystery contained in this sorrow of
the Lord, which referred especially to the three Apostles, saint Peter, John
and James. For, more than all the rest, they were imbued with an exalted
conception of the greatness and Divinity of their Master as far as the
excellence of his doctrine, the holiness of his works, and the power of his
miracles were concerned. They realized more completely and wondered more deeply
at his dominion over all creation. In order that they might be confirmed in
their belief of his being a man capable of suffering, it was befitting that
they should know as eyewitnesses his truly human sorrow and affliction. By the
testimony of these three Apostles who were distinguished by such favours, the
holy Church was afterwards to be well fortified against the errors, which the
devil would try to spread against the belief in the humanity of Christ our Saviour.
Thus would the rest of the faithful have the consolation of this firmly
established belief in their own affliction and sorrow.
.
Interiorly enlightened in this truth, the three Apostles were exhorted by the
Author of life by the words: “Wait for Me, watch and pray with Me.” He wished
to inculcate the practice of all that He had taught them and to make them
constant in their belief. He thereby reminded them of the danger of backsliding
and of the duty of watchfulness and prayer in order to recognize and resist the
enemy, remaining always firm in the hope of seeing his name exalted after the
ignominy of his Passion. With this exhortation the Lord separated Himself a
short distance from the three Apostles.
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| Now Christ alone in another place praying |
He threw himself with his divine face
upon the ground and prayed to the eternal Father: “Father, if it is possible,
let this chalice pass from Me” (Matth. 26, 38). This prayer Christ our Lord
uttered, though He had come down from heaven with the express purpose of really
suffering and dying for men; though He had counted as naught the shame of his
Passion, had willingly embraced it and rejected all human consolation; though
He was hastening with most ardent love into the jaws of death, to affronts,
sorrows and afflictions; though He had set such a high price upon men, that He
determined to redeem them at the shedding of his lifeblood. Since by virtue of
his divine and human wisdom and his inextinguishable love He had shown Himself
so superior to the natural fear of death, that it seems this petition did not
arise from any motive solely coming from Himself. That this was so in fact, was
made known to me in the light which was vouchsafed me concerning the mysteries
contained in this prayer of the Saviour.
