Gethsemane: The Heart of the Redemption
(3rd Week of the Exercises)
... Gethsemane, in Matthew 26:36-46, provides a profoundly revealing insight into Jesus' desire to be with the Father and, at the same time, is very reassuring for us ... Ignatius stresses the value, the sacramentality, of time and place; so the late evening might be a very good time to come to the garden with the Lord and with the three disciples who could not remain awake with him one hour.
I myself feel that the heart of our redemption is really here in the Garden of Olives. We tend to think of Calvary as the central act and Gethsemane as a sort of preliminary to the crucifixion. But it has seemed to me, in my own prayer and reflection, that the decisive moment is actually in the garden. It is there that Jesus said his definitive "yes" to the Father.
Gethsemane was a real struggle; Jesus even said, "If possible, let this chalice pass", which implies that humanly he thought it might still be possible. He hoped, at least, that it would be possible. However, he goes on to say, "Not my will, but yours be done." These are beautiful words of surrender. Yet, if we look at them closely and contemplate them, they seem to imply again that his human will and what he suspected the Father's will to be were different. His love for the Father, his desire to be where the Father was, was not a blind, mechanical, automatic thing. Even he felt revulsion in the face of rejection and death ... and we should not expect to feel any differently. We should not feel guilty that we react as he did. We should not seek to be holler than Jesus himself!
At the same time we see the perfection of the third degree of humility here, not in Jesus enjoying the abasement of Calvary, but precisely in his ability to say to the Father, "Everything in me recoils at the prospect. Yet it is still more important to me to be wherever you are, beloved Father. If Calvary is where you are for me, even though humanly I would love to have it otherwise, let it be." This beautiful realization that we can be at peace with our humanity is for all of us tremendously supportive and encouraging, I think. We can know in a very concrete way that the Lord has been tempted in every way that we are, and yet he was able to say "yes" to the Father even in the face of his human revulsion.
So the third degree, as we said earlier and as we see revealed here in Gethsemane, is not a love for humiliations in themselves. We are not masochists. If we are normal, we have a real revulsion for that sort of thing. But the person with the third degree of humility has a loving desire to be with the Lord wherever he is. If I may use a personal example, I recall when my father was dying in 1973. 1 was in Rochester for the last three weeks of his life. Each evening I would go home with my mother, and the following morning we would return to the hospital. I remember that it struck me very much that, hard as it was for her to see him dying, she was quite restless in the morning until we got back to the hospital. She had to be there at precisely the moment we were allowed to enter. She had no peace if we were late. Yet, after he died, as I heard from her later, she did not go near that hospital, and she did not want to go near it for at least a year or two, even though her own doctor's office was in an annex of the same hospital. She did not love the hospital, but she loved to be where my father was. In fact, if I can judge from her feelings after he was no longer there, she "hated" the hospital because of what it represented in terms of his suffering. Yet, when he was there, she had to be there.
If you can see the paradox in that personal example, I think you have some idea of the meaning of the third degree and of the mystery of Gethsemane. You also realize why I would suggest that this is the heart of the redemption. I feel that, when Jesus left the garden, he left with his crisis resolved. He had said "yes" to the Father, and that "yes" was forever. Calvary, I think, was simply the living out of the definitive "yes" that was given in the garden. It was terribly important, just as our living out of our vows or our marriage commitment or our ordination is also important. But if they really are what they should be, then the crucial "yes" has already been said.
Gethsemane takes flesh in the living out of Calvary. In our daily lives, the retreat "yes" to God takes flesh in all the events that follow from that "yes". But the crucial moment, the moment, we might say, toward which our whole retreat has been directed, is the saying of that "yes" a "yes" that, for us as for Jesus himself, win be strong enough and firm enough to sustain us in the challenge of living it out. It is encouraging to recall, though, that the ability to say "yes" in that way, to love the Lord to that degree, is not something we can achieve for or by ourselves. We can only "beg to be chosen", by the grace of the Lord and with the help of his holy Mother, to love him so deeply. It is his gift. But, as I said earlier, I believe that it is a gift he surely gives to those who sincerely desire it. He is dying has died to give it!
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning....
Fr. Thomas H. Green, SJ -- A Vacation with the Lord, p.132)
... Gethsemane, in Matthew 26:36-46, provides a profoundly revealing insight into Jesus' desire to be with the Father and, at the same time, is very reassuring for us ... Ignatius stresses the value, the sacramentality, of time and place; so the late evening might be a very good time to come to the garden with the Lord and with the three disciples who could not remain awake with him one hour.I myself feel that the heart of our redemption is really here in the Garden of Olives. We tend to think of Calvary as the central act and Gethsemane as a sort of preliminary to the crucifixion. But it has seemed to me, in my own prayer and reflection, that the decisive moment is actually in the garden. It is there that Jesus said his definitive "yes" to the Father.
Gethsemane was a real struggle; Jesus even said, "If possible, let this chalice pass", which implies that humanly he thought it might still be possible. He hoped, at least, that it would be possible. However, he goes on to say, "Not my will, but yours be done." These are beautiful words of surrender. Yet, if we look at them closely and contemplate them, they seem to imply again that his human will and what he suspected the Father's will to be were different. His love for the Father, his desire to be where the Father was, was not a blind, mechanical, automatic thing. Even he felt revulsion in the face of rejection and death ... and we should not expect to feel any differently. We should not feel guilty that we react as he did. We should not seek to be holler than Jesus himself!
At the same time we see the perfection of the third degree of humility here, not in Jesus enjoying the abasement of Calvary, but precisely in his ability to say to the Father, "Everything in me recoils at the prospect. Yet it is still more important to me to be wherever you are, beloved Father. If Calvary is where you are for me, even though humanly I would love to have it otherwise, let it be." This beautiful realization that we can be at peace with our humanity is for all of us tremendously supportive and encouraging, I think. We can know in a very concrete way that the Lord has been tempted in every way that we are, and yet he was able to say "yes" to the Father even in the face of his human revulsion.
So the third degree, as we said earlier and as we see revealed here in Gethsemane, is not a love for humiliations in themselves. We are not masochists. If we are normal, we have a real revulsion for that sort of thing. But the person with the third degree of humility has a loving desire to be with the Lord wherever he is. If I may use a personal example, I recall when my father was dying in 1973. 1 was in Rochester for the last three weeks of his life. Each evening I would go home with my mother, and the following morning we would return to the hospital. I remember that it struck me very much that, hard as it was for her to see him dying, she was quite restless in the morning until we got back to the hospital. She had to be there at precisely the moment we were allowed to enter. She had no peace if we were late. Yet, after he died, as I heard from her later, she did not go near that hospital, and she did not want to go near it for at least a year or two, even though her own doctor's office was in an annex of the same hospital. She did not love the hospital, but she loved to be where my father was. In fact, if I can judge from her feelings after he was no longer there, she "hated" the hospital because of what it represented in terms of his suffering. Yet, when he was there, she had to be there.
If you can see the paradox in that personal example, I think you have some idea of the meaning of the third degree and of the mystery of Gethsemane. You also realize why I would suggest that this is the heart of the redemption. I feel that, when Jesus left the garden, he left with his crisis resolved. He had said "yes" to the Father, and that "yes" was forever. Calvary, I think, was simply the living out of the definitive "yes" that was given in the garden. It was terribly important, just as our living out of our vows or our marriage commitment or our ordination is also important. But if they really are what they should be, then the crucial "yes" has already been said.
Gethsemane takes flesh in the living out of Calvary. In our daily lives, the retreat "yes" to God takes flesh in all the events that follow from that "yes". But the crucial moment, the moment, we might say, toward which our whole retreat has been directed, is the saying of that "yes" a "yes" that, for us as for Jesus himself, win be strong enough and firm enough to sustain us in the challenge of living it out. It is encouraging to recall, though, that the ability to say "yes" in that way, to love the Lord to that degree, is not something we can achieve for or by ourselves. We can only "beg to be chosen", by the grace of the Lord and with the help of his holy Mother, to love him so deeply. It is his gift. But, as I said earlier, I believe that it is a gift he surely gives to those who sincerely desire it. He is dying has died to give it!
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning....
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him (Heb 4:14 15; 5:7 9).
Fr. Thomas H. Green, SJ -- A Vacation with the Lord, p.132)
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