Agony in the Garden

[Trevelyan]

Lately, when I meditate on the 1st Sorrowful Mystery, I have been distracted by the difficulty that has suddenly arisen, of thinking about Christ praying “that this cup may pass”.

I do not doubt anything about the 2 natures, 1 person of Christ etc. but I just find it hard to comprehend. I’ve never had this rouble before.

Christ came into the world to die for our sins, and new that he had to die - as he told his disciples quite a number of times.
So why did he ask the Father “that this cup may pass”?

Any thoughts?

 

[otm]

Trevelyan:

Lately, when I meditate on the 1st Sorrowful Mystery, I have been distracted by the difficulty that has suddenly arisen, of thinking about Christ praying “that this cup may pass”.

I do not doubt anything about the 2 natures, 1 person of Christ etc. but I just find it hard to comprehend. I’ve never had this rouble before.

Christ came into the world to die for our sins, and new that he had to die - as he told his disciples quite a number of times.
So why did he ask the Father “that this cup may pass”?

Any thoughts?

he lived in a world that practiced a very vicious and barbaric form of execution. His prayer was that He would not have to go through with what was so obviously pending. It (the prayer) shows both His foreknowledge of His death, and His very real humanity. No one would want to go through what He went through.

 

[thistle]

Trevelyan:

Lately, when I meditate on the 1st Sorrowful Mystery, I have been distracted by the difficulty that has suddenly arisen, of thinking about Christ praying “that this cup may pass”.

I do not doubt anything about the 2 natures, 1 person of Christ etc. but I just find it hard to comprehend. I’ve never had this rouble before.

Christ came into the world to die for our sins, and new that he had to die - as he told his disciples quite a number of times.
So why did he ask the Father “that this cup may pass”?

Any thoughts?

There was a similar question in another post and I quoted this meditation on the Agony in the Garden by a priest.

The Agony in the Garden
From the Supper Room in Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples went out into the night to a quiet grove of olive trees called Gethsemani on the western slope of Mount Olivet. Taking Peter, James and John, witnesses of his transfiguration in glory, he withdrew deeper into the garden. They would witness now his fear and hear his anxious prayer.

Going on alone, a stone’s throw away, Jesus fell upon the ground and began to pray a doleful prayer:

“Abba, Father, all things are possible to you; remove this cup from me. Yet not my will but yours be done.” (Mark 14,36)

So troubled and distressed had he become by what he saw before him Ð a brutal death Ð that “his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.” (Luke 22,43) Returning three times to seek his disciples’ support, he found them asleep.

On that dark night, when evil had its way, Jesus found support in only One. “Abba, Father.” A child’s cry came from his heart. Cold fear, betrayal, the desertion of friends, the false judgments of others, the whips, the nails, the hard wood could not stop it. His childlike faith in God would not be broken, even through the hours of pain and tears.

When words no longer could be said, nor thoughts no longer formed, that confident prayer uttered in the garden would remain in Jesus’ heart. “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you.”

His prayer did not go unanswered. Luke’s account of the agony of Jesus says: “An angel came from heaven to strengthen him.”

What can we learn from all of this? That Jesus will watch with us in the dark gardens of our life? That he will teach us this same childlike prayer? That he will send his angel, too, to strengthen us?

Meditation by Fr Victor Hoagland, C.P

 

[undeserving]

Jesus was the Son of God, but he was in every way like us, human completely except for sin. He had a choice, He could follow the destiny that His father wished Him to, but he could have walked away as well. Christs whole life was in submiting Himself to His Fathers wishes. This particular wish, His Passion and agony was very hard for Him to accept. The glory is that He did accept it, knowing how hard it was going to be.

 

[Trevelyan]

Thanks for the comments, they really helped. I just now grasped a bit better understanding of it. Something like this:

Jesus knew what he would have to go through, and he willed it - as it was the Father’s will, BUT the human nature that he had taken upon himself could not help but dread such an impending death & ask that it be averted, if it could.

Tanks again & thanks be to God.

 

[CSN]

Hello,

I just happened to come across this thread while searching for another, and thought this is relevant: in the Divine Mercy Novena Jesus says that He asked for the cup to be taken away in particular of the lukewarm souls, who were the most abhorrent to him…

See this link…

ewtn.com/Devotionals/mercy/novena.htm

 

[Pauli]

This is just an opinion but I think that Jesus went through things such as this so that, when we who are human get to such an awful predicament that we are totally dreading what is about to happen, we have the assurance that Jesus is right there with us, he knows exactly how that feels and, more, knows what to do about it. “Nevertheless, not my will but thine,” is really the only way out. He is there, and we’re not all alone, at such times.

 

[leonie]

I heard a Christian preacher (on the radio) recently say that one of the purposes of prayer is to change our own hearts–allign them with God’s Will. He interpreted Jesus’s prayer to be aimed at transforming Jesus’s human desire to be alligned with God’s perfect Will.

This makes sense to me because in my personal experience, I have prayed for things to occur (in vain) and found that the prayer actually changed my heart.

I’m still thinking about this…

I know Jesus’s will was alligned with the Father’s, but certainly his human desire to avoid suffering was not. Our desires are not our wills, right?