PRAYER AND AGONDEN INTHE GARDEN II
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. 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).
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| Father, if is possible, let this chalice pass from me |
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. This was so in fact the mysteries contained in this prayer of the
Saviour.
In
this prayer Christ offered, on his part, to the eternal Father his torments,
his precious blood and his Death for all men as an abundant price for all the
mortals and for each one of the human born till that time and yet to be born to
the end of the world; and, on the part of mankind, He presented the infidelity,
ingratitude and contempt with which sinful man was to respond to his frightful
Passion and Death; He presented also the loss which He was to sustain from
those who would not profit by his clemency and condemn themselves to eternal
woe. Though to die for his friends and for the predestined was pleasing to Him
and longingly desired by our Saviour; yet to die for the reprobate was indeed
bitter and painful; for with regard to them the impelling motive for accepting
the pains of death was wanting. This sorrow was what the Lord called a chalice,
for the Hebrews were accustomed to use this word for signifying anything that
implied great labour and pain. The Savior himself had already used this word on
another occasion, when in speaking to the sons of Zebedee He asked them:
whether they could drink the chalice, which the Son of man was to drink (Matth
20, 22). This chalice then was so bitter for Christ our Lord, because He knew
that his drinking it would not only be without fruit for the reprobate, but
would be a scandal to them and redound to their greater chastisement and pain
on account of their despising it (I Cor. 1, 23).
In
this prayer Christ besought his Father to let this chalice of dying for the
reprobate pass from Him. Since now his Death was not to be evaded, He asked
that none, if possible, should be lost; He pleaded, that as his Redemption
would be superabundant for all, that therefore it should be applied to all in
such a way as to make all, if possible, profit by it in an efficacious manner;
and if this was not possible, He would resign Himself to the will of his
eternal Father. Our Saviour repeated this prayer three times at different
intervals (Matth. 26, 44), pleading the longer in his agony in view of the
importance and immensity of the object in question (Luke 22, 43). According to
our way of understanding, there was a contention or altercation between the
most sacred humanity and the Divinity of Christ. For this humanity, in its
intense love for men who were of his own nature, desired that all should attain
eternal salvation through his Passion; while his Divinity, in its secret and
high judgments, had fixed the number of the predestined and in its divine
equity could not concede its blessings to those who so much despised them, and
who, of their own free will, made themselves unworthy of eternal life by
repelling the kind intentions of Him who procured and offered it to them. From
this conflict arose the agony of Christ, in which He prayed so long and in
which He appealed so earnestly to the power and majesty of his omnipotent and
eternal Father.
His
agony increased to such an extent, that great drops of bloody sweat were
pressed from Him,
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| Drop of sweat as thick as blood |
which flowed to the very earth. Although this prayer was uttered
subject to a condition and failed in regard to the reprobate who fell under
this condition; yet He gained thereby a greater abundance and secured a greater
frequency of favours for mortals. Through it the blessings were multiplied for
those who placed no obstacles, the fruits of the Redemption were applied to the
saints and to the just more abundantly, and many gifts and graces, of which the
reprobates made themselves unworthy, were diverted to the elect. The human will
of Christ, conforming itself to that of the Divinity, then accepted suffering
for each respectively: for the reprobate, as sufficient to procure them the
necessary help, if they would make use of its merits, and for the predestined,
as an efficacious means, of which they would avail themselves to secure their
salvation by cooperating with grace. Thus was set in order, and as it were
realized, the salvation of the mystical body of his holy Church (which He founded
that night at the last supper), of which Christ the Lord was the Creator and
Head.
