written by Pat Thompson
The last large window on the southeast side of the nave depicts the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemene. We all remember that sad evening. After the Last Supper, Christ and His Apostles retired to the garden. There, Jesus, saying to His friends “My soul is exceeding sorrowful,” went off a little way and prayed to His Father. There are some aspects of this moving event that we might consider more closely. Why has Jesus so filled with sorrow? Why Gethsemene? Does the place have any significance? Why does Jesus speak about a cup? Why did Jesus tell His followers to pray so that they would “not enter into temptation”? How about… Well, let’s discuss, the scene this window depicts, try to answer these questions, and discern how we today might apply aspects of this evening to our lives.
The story of Jesus’ agony is found in Matthew 26, Mark 14 and Luke 22.
At the Last Supper, we recall Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist, giving us the blessing of receiving the great gift of His Body and Blood in Communion. That night he also instituted the Sacrament of Holy Orders, thus ordaining the Apostles as the first priests. After this final supper, Jesus, “as was His custom,” went to the Garden of Gethsemene, a lush garden located accross the Kidron Valley on or near the Mount of Olives. Both Luke (Luke 22:39) and John (18:2) tell us that this was a favorite retreat for Our Lord. Is there any significance in its name—Gethsemene? It means “olive press” or “oil press.” One commentator suggests that it was here in this garden that Jesus began to be bruised and crushed so that our sins could be forgiven and we might have eternal life with Him.
It was in this beautiful garden that Our Lord suffered “an agony” so great that “His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down upon the ground.” (Luke 22:44) A great mental anguish and physical distress came upon Him as He thought about what was to come—His betrayal, the false accusations, the mockery, beatings, being spat upon, scourged, horribly tortured, crucified, the terror His beloved disciples would feel, the grief of His dear Mother, the sinners who would still reject Him even after His loving sacrifice… St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, “The gathered storm of all these evils rushed into His most gentle heart and flooded it like the ocean sweeping through broken dikes.”
It is while He is agonizing over all of the things that Jesus cries, “Abba, Father, all thing are possible to thee; remove this cup from me: yet not what I will but what though wilt.” (Mark 14:36) Why does Jesus refer to a cup? Jesus referred to this cup earlier in Matthew 20:22 and Mark 10 when He asked the sons of Zebedee (James and John), “Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?”
It is helpful to realize that Matthew wrote his gospel for Jewish converts to Christianity. They would have readily understood the significance of Christ‘s use of the word “cup”. There are many references to the cup in the Old Testament. For example, it is referred to as the “cup of his wrath” in Isaiah 51:17, the cup of the wine of wrath” in Jeremiah 25:15, and as “the cup of staggering” in Isaiah 51:22. Zechariah 12:2 calls it “a cup of reeling.” These and many other cup references meant the punishment that would be given to sinful humanity. Now, however, Jesus takes this cup upon Himself and He does so willingly. In John 12:27, Jesus asks, “And what shall I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour?” In John 10:18, He says, “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” Then in the garden Jesus says to His Father,”…yet not what I will, but what thou wilt.” (Mark 14:36) And with His assent, He agrees to suffer all of the punishment due for our sins so that we might be redeemed. He agrees to become the “Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.” He agrees to become the lamb that Isaiah prophesied, “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before it shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth… he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (53:7&12) Even on the cross before He says, “It is finished,“ He says, “I thirst” as if to say He is ready for more punishment to be certain our redemption in complete. (John 19:30 and 28) Amazing Love!
Cardinal J. Francis Stafford said in 2006 “Every human throughout history has loaded his or her sins upon the Innocent One whose outstretched arms embraced them all in love.”
Perhaps here might be a good place to remind ourselves that Jesus was truly God but also truly human. Because of His anxiety—physical and mental—we have proof that Jesus was genuinely human. We remember that the devil tempted Jesus three years earlier in the desert, but “departed from him until an opportune time.” (Luke 4:13) Now in the garden it seems the devil thinks he has found the opportune time since he attacks Jesus again, this time with fear, knowing that as a human He would naturally fear suffering. Just a few minutes earlier Jesus had told his companions to watch and pray so that they would “not enter into temptation” for “the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak.” Aquinas says that because Jesus was truly man, his human will was not omnipotent (all-powerful), and so Christ also asked the Father to strengthen His will to resist the temptations assailing.
It is interesting to note that the three Apostles who were with Jesus at the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor (Matt.17) were the same three who were a “stone's throw” from Him as He suffered in the garden. Thus Peter, James and John actually saw Jesus as truly God and truly man.
What else might we learn from the events in the Garden of Gethsemene?
- Notice that Jesus calls His Father, “Abba.” This is a loving term of a child for his father and a reminder to us that God the Father is also a loving “Daddy.”
- Father Mitch Pacwa says we might see that Jesus in “living out” or “praying” the Lord’s Prayer as He asks His Father to help Him to resist temptation and to deliver Him from evil and then tell His Father “thy will be done.”
- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen points out that the first thing Jesus asks of his newly ordained priests is that they spend an hour with him in prayer. (Sheen took this request to heart himself and spent an hour every day—no matter where he was or how busy his schedule—in Eucharistic adoration.) Should we also spend time with Jesus in daily prayer, frequent visits with Him in church, and at Eucharistic Adoration?
- As we said earlier, Jesus told the Apostles to watch and pray that they would “not enter into temptation.” What temptation? Perhaps the temptation to abandon Jesus or to lose faith in Him when they saw that He was arrested and killed? Or perhaps they would be tempted to deny Him later in order to avoid persecution themselves? If Jesus prayed for strength to resist temptation and told His Apostles to pray for that, shouldn’t we also pray for strength against the temptations we deal with daily. St. Francis de Sales writes, “If our Lord had only said watch, we might expect that our power would be sufficient, but when He adds “pray,” He shows that if He keeps not our souls in time of temptation in vain shall they watch who keep them.”
- Jesus’ companions failed to keep watch and pray with Him, but then “an angel from heaven” came “strengthening Him” (Luke 22:43) Pope Paul VI says that angels “intercede for us and come to the aid our weaknesses in brotherly care.”
- Even though Jesus asked them to watch and pray, the Apostles kept falling asleep. They were sleeping while the devil was prowling around the garden and while Judas was busily going about his betrayal of Jesus. St. Thomas More writes, “Does not this contrast between the traitor and the apostles present to us a clear and sharp mirror image (as it were), a sad and terrible view of what has happened through the ages from those time even to our own?...For very many are sleepy and apathetic in sewing virtues among the people and maintaining the truth, while the enemies of Christ in order to sow vices and uproot the faith…are wide awake—so much wiser (as Christ says) are the sons of darkness in their generation that the sons of light.” More wrote in the 1500’s, yet his words might easily be a description of our times.
· So…are we sleeping or are we watchful and praying and sewing virtues and maintaining the truth or…?
A simple window can give us much to think about, can’t it?
