✍️ The Agony in the Garden
Matthew 26:36-46: The Agony in the Garden
38 Then he said to them, “My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch with me.” 39 He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will.” 40 When he returned to his disciples he found them asleep. He said to Peter, “So you could not keep watch with me for one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 Withdrawing a second time, he prayed again, “My Father, if it is not possible that this cup pass without my drinking it, your will be done!” 43 Then he returned once more and found them asleep, for they could not keep their eyes open. 44 He left them and withdrew again and prayed a third time, saying the same thing again. 45 Then he returned to his disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Behold, the hour is at hand when the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners. 46 Get up, let us go. Look, my betrayer is at hand.”
— Matthew 26:38-46 —
There are a lot of good reasons to become Catholic. The main one is that it is true. Salvation is obtained, not by inventing our own truths, but by submitting to the truth that God has revealed both written and spoken. But what do we do when the Church that so many Catholics promise to be a refuge wounds us, betrays us, or abandons us?
There is no promise when you become Catholic that the Church will not offend you, wound you, or even physically harm you. But then again, there is no promise that any other religious community won’t do the same to you. Granted, there are checks and administrative disciplines that are in place to dissuade those actions by priests and laity, but as anyone who’s been married for 40 years will tell you, spend enough time with someone you love and they will have the ability to hurt you more than anyone else ever could. Yet, what makes a marriage successful is not the guarantee that you will not be hurt. Marriages are successful when they operate in the grace God gives them to forgive the inevitable wounds that will happen. Similarly, when we enter into communion with the Church, we too must recognize that after the honeymoon phase, we must remain faithful despite what wounds come our way.
When we enter into the Garden of Gethsemane, we find that those who remained his followers in John 6, have not abandoned him, but instead have become apathetic, lukewarm. At least in John 6:66, Christ knew that those who had abandoned him had made their decision. In the Garden, those words “Where shall we go Lord, for you have the words of eternal life”, appear to be forgotten by his most loyal and beloved apostles. It’s not even that his friends have betrayed him, that comes later in the passage. No, it’s that his apostles are with him, but they do not care about him, they are not heeding his teaching. Instead of staying awake and praying with and for Christ, they are apathetic, lazy, and asleep.
Does this not seem a bit ironic? Recall for a moment the passage from Mark’s Gospel.
37 A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up. 38 Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
— Mk. 4:37-38
When we return to the Garden, as described in Matthew’s Gospel, we see that the roles are reversed. Here it is not Christ who is asleep, but the disciples, even though Christ is the one “whom the wind and the seas obey”. Now that same man, who they awoke in the midst of their storm, is telling them to stay awake during his. But they fail to heed his rebuke,
When he returned to his disciples he found them asleep. He said to Peter, “So you could not keep watch with me for one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test.
— Mt. 26:40-41
There is one more interesting parallel here. In the “Calming of the Wind and Seas” narrative, Christ rebukes the wind and sea and then immediately turns and rebukes the disciples for having little faith.
39 He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!”[i] The wind ceased and there was great calm. 40 Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”
Mk. 4:39-40
When the disciples got into the boats, there were no signs of a storm approaching. As trained fishermen, they most certainly would have understood the “times” and “signs” of approaching storms. It’s likely that the storm came out of nowhere and caught them off guard. Regardless, when we return to the Garden of Gethsemane, we find the one who commands the wind and the sea sweating blood.
44 He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground.
— Lk. 22:43
In the same way that the initial drops of rain signal the coming storm, so Christ’s blood and sweat indicate that a dark storm is on the horizon, a storm that Christ will not stop. The signs were there but the disciples, ironically, “missed the boat.”
So where are we now? We are back in the Garden, and Christ is alone. The early infancy of the Church, now down to 11 apostles and 1 betrayer, have shown they would rather sleep than heed their savior. Now, how does this passage serve our daily Christian lives, outside of the fact that we should be grateful to Christ for his agony in it? It is here that I think the Rosary provides us, not with merely a Biblical Worldview, but a Gospel Worldview.
At the end of the Rosary, there is a closing prayer that contains the following line,
“…Grant, we beseech thee, that by meditating on the mysteries of the most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise through the same Christ, our Lord, Amen.”
As we pray these mysteries of the life of Christ, we recognize the depth of the meaning of Christ’s words when he said to “follow him”. He wasn’t merely campaigning for the throne of Heaven. He was calling us to go with him to Golgotha. Peter promised that he would die with Christ. When we confess Christ as Lord, we are making a promise of obedience to His body, which is the Church. Yet, even the first apostles, hand-picked by God himself, failed. Peter says to Christ, “Where else shall we go?” Yet, when Christ was nailed to the Cross, it was not Peter hanging next to him, nor was James. The only disciple left was John and Christ’s Mother, Mary.
What this mystery teaches us is not that becoming a Christian is safe, but that becoming a Christian means stepping into the footprints of Christ, and following him into the fullness of truth. We must expect to be betrayed, abandoned, and yes, to be awake while others slumber. Yet, where there is darkness and prayer, there are gifts that God bestows on us to see the mission he has given us to its completion.
The Gospel of Luke tells us that though Christ had been abandoned by his followers, Christ was not abandoned by his Father.
And to strengthen him an angel from heaven appeared to him.
— Ibid. 22:44
Yes, Christ calls us to a heavy cross, but as we will see, whether it is in the Garden or on the road to Calvary, he will always send his aid. Even here, we see the echo of the Garden, “It is not good for man to be alone.” In the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam a woman, Eve. When they sin, God sends an angel to keep Adam and Eve out of the Garden. When Christ is in the Garden and his disciples have fallen asleep, we see that God sends an angel, not to guard and protect, but to nourish and strengthen Christ for the purpose he was sent. Similarly, when Christ is crucified, which John tells us was in the Garden, we see not Eve nor an angel, but Mary, the Mother of God, praying for Christ at the hour of his death.
As we meditate on the Agony in the Garden, we too will be comforted, so long as we stay awake. Though churchmen and laity fail us, though there be wolves in the Church, God will remain faithful to his Church and send angels to comfort us in our time of need. We may sweat drops of blood, we may be in anguish, we may even pray the same prayer over and over again as Christ does here. But when we look up in our agony, we will find an angelic hand wiping our brow. So, we do not lose hope because in imitating what these mysteries contain, we obtain what they promise, not by any merit of our own, but through “…the same Christ, our Lord, amen.”
Keep praying.
— DR