Agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
“Then Jesus came with them into a country place which is called Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples: ‘Sit you here, till I go yonder and pray.’ And taking with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to grow sorrowful and to be sad. Then He saith to them: ‘My soul is sorrowful even unto death; stay you here, and watch with Me.’” (Matt. 26, 36-38).
First Prelude: Behold our Divine Saviour in the Garden of Gethsemane weighed down by sorrow and grief.
Second Prelude: O my Jesus, give me true compunction for my sins, that I may share Thy sorrow and seek consolation with Thee alone.
First Point
The Profound Sorrow and Anguish of Jesus
A little while ago Jesus had lovingly consoled His Apostles in the Supper Room, had spoken of His passion as the object of His intense desires. Suddenly He yielded to sorrow, fear, and anguish of soul. “My soul is sorrowful unto death,” He said to His disciples. How excessive must this sorrow have been if the Eternal Truth spoke thus! We see further that Jesus suffered voluntarily, and that sorrow could assail Him no sooner than He Himself had decreed. What a miracle of love! To behold a God, the essence of eternal happiness, sorrowful for love of mankind!
This sorrow was caused by the sight of the sins for which He willed to atone. Like a tremendous burden, all the crimes, all the sins committed since the Fall weighed down our Blessed Saviour and plunged His soul into inexpressible grief. This sorrow was further intensified by the thought of all the sins of the future. Looking into the future Jesus saw a new torrent of sins breaking in upon Him and flowing on until the end of time. What must have been the sentiments of His sinless, holiest Soul at sight of such abominations! This sorrow alone would have sufficed to cause His death. At the same time it augmented all His corporal sufferings, for it clung to Him until He commended His Soul into the hands of His heavenly Father. Even now the Saviour foresaw the vast ocean of sufferings that awaited Him. He beheld the treason of Judas, the flight of the Apostles, the denial by Peter, felt the inexpressible anguish and pain of the scourging, the excruciating pain of the crowning with thorns, and saw even the cross erected on Calvary, on which He was to die amid inexpressible anguish. The most bitter suffering of His love-inflamed Heart, however, was the thought that, notwithstanding His sufferings, so many souls would be eternally lost.
Behold your Saviour, O my soul! Contemplate this sorrowful picture and be mindful that your sins, too, were the cause of His agony. Learn here to repent of them, and to accept the sorrow that God suffers to come upon you in punishment of your sins. If the Son of God thus grieved over my sins, what must not I do, who have committed them?
Second Point
By His Agony in the Garden, Jesus Willed to Sanctify Our Sorrow
By divine dispensation we must suffer manifold reverses and tribulations in this life. Sufferings are repugnant to our rebellious, corrupt nature, inasmuch as they produce pain, unrest, and disgust; but by His agony in the Garden, Jesus merited for us the grace to sanctify such dispositions of soul. He wills that in dark hours we look upon Him as our model and unite ourselves with Him, that our sorrow, too, may redound to the honor of God and the salvation of souls! Countless souls have found, in the agonizing Heart of Jesus, the source of all consolation. Contemplating the agonizing Heart of Jesus in Gethsemane, penitents of every rank have, despite the most poignant grief for their sins, experienced profound peace of soul.
Let us then renew our courage, and in all our sufferings seek comfort and relief in the Sacred Heart of Jesus; the more we despise every other form of consolation, the more shall we find it in this Sacred Heart. Let us banish far from us every sorrow and grief that might endanger the welfare of our soul, such as springs from imperfect motives, from inordinate affections, or from lack of confidence in Divine Providence. Oh, how unlike the sorrow of Jesus is such grief!
Affections: O my Saviour, I thank Thee for the sorrow which Thou didst will to suffer for my sins. Offer it to the heavenly Father in satisfaction for my many transgressions. Let me share Thy anguish by sincere compunction and contrition for all the sins whereby I have grieved Thy infinitely loving Heart. O Heart, plunged in an ocean of bitterness, Thy sorrow is the surest pledge of Thy infinite love. For the future I will no longer seek consolation with creatures. I desire Thy grace and Thy love. Possessing them, I shall desire nothing further.
Resolution: In every affliction I will have recourse to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I will unite my contrition with the sorrow of Jesus in the Garden.
Spiritual Bouquet: “My soul is sorrowful even unto death.”
Prayer: Soul of Christ . . .
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