Then, going a third time to His apostles, He found them still asleep. He said to them: “Sleep now, and take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners[1]. Rise, let us go[2]. Behold, he is at hand that will betray Me!”
COMMENTARY.
Our Blessed Lord suffered in His human nature. Contemplate Jesus in the garden of Gethsemani, lying on His face under the olive-trees, in the darkness of night, sighing, praying and sweating blood! Behold Him who fills earth with gladness, and heaven with wonder, in deepest anguish. He who but a short time before was consoling His apostles is now Himself full of sorrow. He who promised help to them is now weak Himself, and asks them to help Him. He who has dried the eyes of so many now sheds tears of Blood. The mighty Wonderworker is prostrate and trembling, and His Heart is well-nigh breaking for very woe. The Soul of Him who commanded the winds and the waves is now overwhelmed with trouble and anguish. How is this extraordinary change to be explained? In order to understand our Lord’s Agony in the garden, and His Sufferings which followed it, you must remember that the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ could not suffer, and that it was only His human nature which could suffer and die; and, moreover, that His human nature, being inseparably united to His divine nature, could only suffer as much, and for as long, as He willed it to suffer. He entered on His Passion of His own will, and did not allow torment and fear to take possession of His Heart till He had left His eight apostles at a distance, and had near Him only those three who had been prepared for the sight of Him in His hour of abasement, by the vision of His glory on Mount Thabor. But in order that the human nature might suffer, the Divinity abandoned it to itself and, as it were, withdrew from it, and deprived it of all inward consolation, as we see in the narrative. To such an extent did He abase Himself that He even sought consolation from creatures, the apostles and angels. At the very beginning of His Passion He wished to leave us no room for doubt that He as Man felt and suffered everything acutely, and that fear, pain and horror caused Him as
- ↑ Of sinners. First into the hands of the High Priest’s servants; then into the power of the Sanhedrin, and, lastly, into that of the heathen governor and his soldiers.
- ↑ Let us go, Our Blessed Lord spoke thus resolutely, for He felt impelled to complete His work, and went forth to meet death, both voluntarily and courageously. The victory was won! The result of His wrestling, and the answer to His prayer was this, that once more the most ardent desire of His Sacred Heart was to suffer and die for the glory of His heavenly Father, and the salvation of mankind.
