The Prayer of Jesus in the Garden
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Meditation
The Last Supper being over, the discourse finished, and the hymn of thanksgiving said, Jesus leaves the supper-room with his eleven Apostles and enters the Garden of Gethsemane. Consider:
1. Jesus is in the habit of retiring after the fatigues of the day, to pass the night in solitude and prayer. Even on this last evening of His life, He does not depart from His pious custom. Learn hence the great importance of prayer, and never neglect it, particularly in spiritual sufferings and trials. Jesus Christ knows that it is in the Garden His Passion is to commence; that in a short time His betrayer is to appear with a body of armed men to arrest Him. He foresees that in a few hours He will have to return by the same road, bound with cords, and dragged along by His enemies, and yet He does not flinch. His ardent charity leads Him onward, and urges Him to enter the Garden without delay, and begin at once to pray and to suffer. Be confounded at the sight of such an example. The slightest trouble, or the most unimportant business, distracts you from prayer, and the consequence of neglecting to strengthen your soul with that Heavenly food is that you become weak and languid, sink down, and fall into sin. Ah, my sweet Jesus, through the merits of Thy Passion bestow upon me a spirit of prayer like unto Thine!
2. Jesus prays with the most profound humility. He falls prostrate on the ground before the Majesty of His Divine Father, almost as though He were unworthy to raise His face and eyes to Heaven; and yet He is the Son of God! With what humility should you pray, you, who are but a wretched sinner. Jesus prays with the utmost fervour of spirit, accompanying His prayer with tears, groans, and sighs. In our name, He asks for the graces which we require to save our souls, appeases Divine Justice, and implores pardon for our sins. Cold and languid prayers, such as yours, are not pleasing to God. Jesus prays in the most lively and tender spirit of confidence, invoking His Eternal Father, calling Him many times “My Father.” God is our Father, and He loves us like a Father. Can any thought be more efficacious to excite the firmest sentiments of hope in our hearts when we pray to this most loving Father? Jesus prays with the most perfect conformity to the Divine will. He recommends this afflicted human nature to His Father; He represents to Him all His sorrow and sufferings, to excite His compassion, He implores to be dispensed from drinking the bitter chalice of His Passion, and yet He prays that what His Father pleases may come to pass — that the will of His Father, and not His own, may be done. Learn to pray in the language and spirit of Jesus Christ, and to will nothing but what God wills. Finally, Jesus prays with perseverance, continuing in prayer for the space of several hours. His most holy soul is overwhelmed with mortal anguish, and yet He is neither disturbed nor impatient, but perseveres constantly in prayer. You may here discover the real secret of obtaining consolation in affliction; to have recourse to God, the true Comforter, and never to grow weary in prayer.
3. After our Loving Jesus has three times, with uplifted eyes, besought His Divine Father that if the salvation of the world can be accomplished without His delivering Himself up to death, He may be dispensed from it, finding that His prayer is not to be granted, but that, on the contrary, the hour of His bitter Passion and ignominious death is near at hand, He permits His suffering humanity to tremble, and to shudder, and to be overwhelmed with fear and anguish. Behold how our sorrowing Jesus, pale, trembling, and anguish-stricken, now groans, sighs, and seeks to give vent to the profound internal sorrow oppressing His heart. Oh, how great is the charity of Jesus! When suffering for me is in question, His eager love anticipates all the torments of His Passion. At least have compassion on your Redeemer in this His mortal anguish; make an offering of yourself to suffer something for love of Him. Our most afflicted Lord turns in His agony to His Apostles, to obtain from them some consolation in His sorrow, and He finds them sleeping. Once again, He has recourse to His Eternal Father and receives an inward intimation that it is His will that He should die for the salvation of men. Jesus bows down His sacred head, accepts death, and exclaims with perfect resignation, “Father, Thy will be done!” Behold at how dear a rate your salvation is purchased by Jesus! Can you any more grieve at having to suffer something to save your soul, after all that Jesus has endured for you?
The Fruit
Never neglect your accustomed prayer, and when prevented from making it, supply the deficiency by desires, and by frequent aspirations to Jesus suffering. Let your prayer rest solely on the merits of Jesus Christ, unite it with His prayer in the Garden, and offer it up in a true spirit of humility and confidence. Let the prayer “Fiat voluntas tuas” Thy will be done, become familiar to you. In dejection of spirit, in sorrow of heart, and in all your sufferings, remember the internal anguish and affliction endured by Jesus in His prayer in the Garden, and they will be rendered sweet to you.
Example
A true lover is always anxious to keep up in his mind a remembrance of the object of his affections, hence souls enamoured of Jesus have ever discovered a thousand ingenious ways of keeping alive in their hearts the remembrance of His sufferings. St. Philip Neri always kept near him a figure of Jesus, unfastened from the cross, in order that he might be able the more freely to give vent to the affections of his heart At night, he would place it by his bed-side, so that the moment he awoke, he might concentrate all his thoughts upon the sweet Object of his love (see his Life). Blessed Paul of the Cross, when alone in his room, always had a very devotional image of Jesus Crucified by his side, and when he went out, he wore it on his breast, so that the sufferings of his Redeemer might be constantly in his thoughts; and in order that so sweet a remembrance might never be effaced from his mind, he wore on his breast, next the skin, a wooden cross garnished with 186 sharp iron points, which continually pricked him, and thus recalled to his memory the sufferings of Jesus Crucified, and excited his heart to lively feelings of compassion.
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