Chapter 21. Meditation on the Prayer in the Garden and the Apprehension of Our Saviour; for Tuesday Morning

Having made the sign of the cross with the preparation mentioned in the second chapter, the subjects for meditation will be the prayer in the garden and the apprehension of our Saviour.

§ 1.—The text of the Evangelists is as follows.

1.— And after the supper was finished, Jesus went with

Matt. xxvi. his disciples to the garden of Gethsemani, Mar. xiv. and said to them; sit you here, till I go Luke xxii. yonder and pray. And taking with him John xviii. 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. And going a little further, he fell upon his face, praying, and saying; My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh to his disciples, and findeth : them asleep, and he saith to Peter; what? could you not watch one hour with me? Watch ye, and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak. Again the second time he went, and prayed, saying; My Father, if this chalice may not pass away but I must drink it, thy will be done. And he cometh again, and findeth them sleeping; for their eyes were heavy. And leaving them, he went again; and he prayed the third time, saying the self-same words.”” ‘‘ And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed the longer. And his sweat became drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground.’ ‘Then he cometh to his disciples, and saith to them: sleep ye now and take your rest; behold the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise let us go: behold he is at hand that will betray me. As he yet spoke, behold Judas one of the twelve came, and with him a great multitude with swords and clubs, sent from the Chief Priests and the Ancients of the people. And he that betrayed him, gave them a sign, saying: Whomsoever I shall kiss, that is he, hold him fast. And forthwith coming to Jesus, he said: Hail Rabbi, and he kissed him. And Jesus said to him: Friend, whereto art thou come.” “Then Simon Peter having a sword, drew it; and struck the servant of the High Priest and cut off his right ear. And the name of the servant was John xviii. Malchus. Jesus therefore said to Peter; put up thy sword into the scabbard. The chalice which my | Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?’ “And when he hád touched his ear he healed him. And Jesus said to the Chief Priests and Magistrates of the temple, and the | | Ancients that were come unto him; are you come out, as it | Luke xxii. were against a thief, with swords and clubs? | when I was daily with you in the temple, you did not stretch forth your hands against me; but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” ‘‘Then the band, and the tribune, and the servants of the Jews took Jesus, and bound him: and they led him away to Annas first, for he was father-in-law to Caiphas, who was the High Priest of that year.” “Then Ona, all his disciples left Jesus and fled.”

§ 2.—Meditation on the above passages.

2.—What art thou doing, Oh my soul? On what art | thou thinking? This is not the hour for sleep. Come with me to the garden of Gethsemani and there thou shalt hear and see great mysteries. There thou shalt see how joy is turned into sorrow, how strength is filled with fear, how courage is melting away, majesty is abashed, greatness subdued and glory clouded and obscured.

3.—Consider then first how after that mysterious supper, our Lord went with his disciples to Mount Olivet to pray, before he entered upon the struggle of his passion, to teach us | how under all our sufferings and all the temptations of this | life, we should always have recourse to prayer, as a sacred anchor, by the aid of which our burthen of sorrow will be lightened or we shall obtain strength to carry it which is a Lib. xxiii. Moral. different and greater favour. “Because,” | ch. xxvii, & xxviii. as St, Gregory says, ‘‘our Lord confers a greater fayour upon us when he gives us strength to bear our sufferings than when he entirely takes away even greater sufferings.””

4.—He took with him as companions his three most be-MOE xyil. loved disciples, Peter and James and John, who a short time before had been witnesses of his glorious transfiguration, that they might see the different figure his love for man induced him to assume, from what they had beheld in that vision of glory. And to give them to understand that the interior sufferings of his soul were not less grievous than those which he outwardly began to shew, he addressed them in these sorrowful words; “My soul is sorrowful unto death, stay here and watch with me.” That God and true man, that man exalted above our humanity and above all creation, whose communings were with the Almighty and whose secrets were entrusted to the breast of the Deity, is now so overpowered with sorrow as to descend to make his creatures partakers in his sufferings and to beg them to give him their companionship, saying; Wait for me here, and watch with me. Oh heavenly bounty! Oh happiness accomplished ! Who placed thee Oh Lord in these straits? "Who cast thee out as a stranger from their gates? Who made thee a supplicant to thy own creatures, but thy love and desire to enrich them ?

5.—Bay, Oh most sweet Redeemer, why fearest thou death which thou didst so anxiously desire, because the fulfilment of a desire is more a subject for joy than fear? The martyrs had neither strength nor grace except the little which was communicated to them from thee, the fountain of grace, and yet upheld by that they marched cheerfully to the victories of martyrdom. And dost thou the giver of strength and grace fear, and art thou troubled before the battle? Truly, Oh Lord, this thy fear is not thine, but mine; as that fortitude of the martyrs was not theirs, but thine. Thy fear is derived from us, and their strength was derived from thee. The feebleness of my humanity is shewn in the fears of God, and the power of thy divinity is shewn in the fortitude of man. Thus is this fear mine, and this fortitude thine, this ignominy mine, and thine my praise. 6.—A rib was taken out of the side of the first Adam to Cet form a woman, and in place of the bone flesh was substituted. What then is this, but that out of thee our second Adam, the Eternal Father took the strength of grace, toinfuse it into thy Spouse the Church and took from BPHes ey: her the weakness of the flesh to plant it in thee? Therefore was the woman made strong and thou made weak; the woman strong with thy strength, and thou weak with her weakness. This, Oh Father, was a double favour conferred upon us, not only didst thou clothe us with thyself but thou didst deign to clothe thyself with us. May the angels ever bless thee for both, since thou hast not been sparing in bestowing thy good things upon us, nor chary in bearing our evils. What then ought I to do, when I consider this? ought I not when I behold myself full of thy mercies to glorify myself in thee, and when I see thee full of my miseries to melt with compassion for thee? For the one I will exult and for the other I will mourn: and thus with mingled tears of joy and sorrow I will rejoice and lament over the mystery of thy -passion, and will ever study in that book of Ezekiel Eyek. il. both the canticles and lamentations.

7.—When he had said this, our Saviour went away from his disciples about a stone’s throw, and falling prostrate on the ground with the most profound reverence commenced Luke xxii. praying, and said : “* Father if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me; but still not my will but thine be done.” And having prayed thus three times, he was filled with such agony that his sweat fell in drops of blood and trickled down his most saered body, even to the ground.

8.—Behold then thy Lord, at this most painful stage, and consider how at that moment all the torments he had to suffer were present to his mind. He clearly saw all the cruel tortures prepared for his tender body. He beheld the sins of the whole world for which he was about to sufler, and the ingratitude of so many souls who would never acknowledge the blessing conferred upon them nor seek to avail themselves of this powerful and costly remedy. Thus was his soul filled with anguish, thus were his senses wrought upon that the strength and fibres of his human frame gave way, and bursting on every side a stream of blood oozed from his sacred flesh and trickled to the ground. If such were the agonies of the body acting from the rebound of the soul, Oh, what would be the agonies of the soul herself?

9.—Generally when some deep and sudden sorrow overwhelms us the blood will rush to the heart, leaving the other members cold and powerless, as it were to relieve the vital part; but with Jesus it was not so, as he desired to suffer without any sort of alleviation to render our redemption more abundant, he refused for the love of us this slight relief which nature profters.

10.—See then thy Lord in this agony and consider not only the agonies of his soul but look also at the appearance of his sacred face. Man principally perspires from the forehead and face, if then the blood streamed down the whole body of Jesus even to the ground, what would be the aspect of that bright brow which gives light to light, of that face adored by heaven spotted and streaked with a sweat of blood? And if those who truly love are seen in the hour of sickness and midst the perils of death to hang with fond looks upon their dying friend, watching each changing hue and movement, what thinkest thou my soul, looking upon the face of Jesus, of all these strange and deadly symptoms? What will be the agonies to follow, since the beginning of the struggle is so terrible? What will be his feelings under the torments themselves, if only the contemplation of them can cause a sweat of blood ?

11.—If at this stage thou feelest no compassion for thy Saviour, and when a bloody sweat oozes from all his body thou hast no tear to shed, depend upon it, thou hast a heart - of stone. If thou hast no tears from lack of love, weep at least for thy manifold sins which were the cause of this suffering. It is not the executioners now that scourge, nor the soldiers that fix the crown, nor the nails and thorns that now cause the blood to flow, but thy sins. They are tho thorns that prick, the executioners that torture, the heavy load that makes this sweat to flow. Oh, my Saviour how dear has my salvation cost thee! Oh thou true Adam, who Gen an, didst leave paradise for my sins, with what a bloody sweat dost thou purchase the bread I have to eat!

12.—Consider also in this stage of the passion, on the one hand, the great agony and the watchings of Christ, and on the other the deep sleep of the disciples. Therein will be found figured a great mystery. For truly there is nothing more astonishing than to observe the carelessness in which men live, and the very slight account they make of their salvation. What more astounding than such neglect on so vital a subject? To understand both the one and the other, look at our Saviour and look at his disciples at this moment. See - our Saviour intent on carrying out his object, overwhelmed with solicitude and in an agony that draws forth a sweat of blood: then look at the disciples, stretched on the ground buried in such a deep sleep, that neither the rebuke of their master, the hard bed on which they lay, the want of shelter nor the evening dew and cold of the night sufficed to rouse them. Yet look at the importance of man’s salvation. It causes him who upholds the firmament to sweat drops of blood, but on the other hand, how little is it thought of by men, since they lie carelessly buried in sleep at the very moment that God himself is sleepless on their account. It is impossible to illustrate either, by any more striking example than this. Since then the miseries of others can thus afflict God himself, q_ A —— how can he whose existence, whose all, whose profit and whose loss are all at stake, continue to live in such strange forgetfulness ?

13.—By this solicitude on the one hand and in this heedlessness on the other we can understand how true it is that the Lord is our Father and has for us the bowels and heart of a Father. How often happens it that whilst a daughter is buried in profound sleep, her wakeful father hangs over her the night long solicitous for her recovery? So is this our tender Father, whilst we are slumbering careless about our salvation, as shewn in this instance, on the anxious watch all night for our recovery, bathed in the agony of a bloody sweat.

§ 3.—On our Saviour being made prisoner.

14.—After his prayer was ended, contemplate the approach of his false friend accompanied by a crowd of miscreants. He had renounced his apostleship and become a spy and captain in the army of Satan. See with what effrontery he heads the crowd and advancing to his Master betrays him with a treacherous kiss of peace. It is a wretched affair for a man to be sold for money, but still worse to be sold by his friends to whom he has been a benefactor. Christ is sold by one whom he had chosen, not only as a disciple, but as an Apostle, he is sold with fraud/and treachery to cruel dealers who only seek his blood and his life to satiate their vengeance. But for how much is he sold? The mean price adds insult to the injury. Tell me, Judas, for what sum didst thou sell the Lord of heaven? For thirty pieces of silver? Oh what a contemptible sum for so great a Lord! Not more than the price of a beast in the market; and for this thou sellest thy God? He did not hold thee so cheap, for he purchased thee with his blood. What a wide difference between the high price set upon man and the contemptible sum at which God is appraised! God is sold for thirty pieces of silver, and man is purchased with the blood of the same God.

15.—At that time Jesus said to those who came to take him, “Ye have come out as it were against a thief with swords and clubs, and when I was daily with you in the temple, you did not stretch forth your arms against me, but this is your hour and the power of darkness.” This is a wonderful mystery. What more awful than to see the Son of God in the likeness not only of a sinner but of a convict ? This, he'says, is your hour and the power of darkness. From these words we gather, that from that hour, this most innocent lamb was delivered over into the power of the princes of darkness, that is, of the devils, that by the hands of their followers and slaves they might inflict upon him every imagiJob i. and ii. nable torture and cruelty. And as Holy Job was by divine permission delivered over into the power of Satan, to do unto whatever evil he wished, so however that he touched not his life, in the same manner was power given to the princes of darkness, without reserve of life or death, to vent all their rage and fury upon that sacred humanity. Hence arose all those trials, all those scoffs, all those unheard-of contumelies, with which the devil strove to satisfy his hate, to avenge his wrongs, and to drive that sacred soul, if it were possible, into some murmuring complaint. ‘And the Zac. lil, Lord shewed me,” saith the Prophet Zacharias, “Jesus the High Priest clothed with filthy garments standing before the Angel of the Lord; and Satan stood on his right hand, to be his adversary.”” And Jesus answering EN AE ED said, ‘‘I set the Lord always in my sight : for he is at my right hand, that I be not moved.” Consider then to what a depth this Divine Majesty hath debased himself - for thee, since he has descended to the greatest of all evils, in being delivered into the power of the ministers of the devil. And because the punishment due to thy sins merited this, he desired to undergo this punishment to free thee from it. Oh

Psalm vill. holy prophet! Why art thou astonished at seeing God make himself less than the angels? Be much more astonished now at seeing him delivered into the power of the ministers of hell. Heaven and earth will doubtless tremble at the sight of such great humility and charity.

16.—After these words, the troop of ravenous wolves rushed upon that meek lamb, tearing at him on every side with the bitterest malignity. Oh how brutally they abused him! What insults they showered upon him! What blows and buffets they gave him! With what yells and screams, like plunderers over their prey, did they salute him! They seize and bind those sacred hands, fresh from working such numberless miracles, with running cords so tight as to make the blood spurt and to tear away the skin from the arms. Thus bound they drag him through the public streets in the most ignominious manner. Oh marvellous spectacle! Think for a moment what thy feelings would be, at beholding some person of well-known merit and great authority, carried through the public streets, in the hands of justice, with a rope round his neck, his hands crossed and bound, accompanied by a noisy rabble and surrounded by a band of armed ruffians. Think what thy feelings would be under such circumstances, and then lift up thy eyes and behold the Lord omnipotent, who wrought such marvellous things in that land, who preached such sermons, whom the sick and the infirm looked upon with such reverence and from whom they sought relief from all their ailments. Behold how they carry him stript of every vestige of authority, covered with disgrace stumbling and jostled about, shoved and pushed along regardless of his person and dignity, in such a way as to gratify the fury of his enemies and to satisfy the Pharisees who were hungering to get their prey within their clutches. Gaze upon him as he passes deserted by his disciples, accompanied by his enemies, * with hurried steps, how wan and pale, how flushed and burning with the breathless hurry of his journey, and contemplate amidst all that personal abuse the modesty of that face, the serenity of those eyes, that Godly appearance which in the midst of every contumely could never lie concealed.

he is thou seest carried off in such disgrace. He is the Word of the Father, the Eternal Wisdom, Infinite Virtue, Infinite Goodness, the Plenitude of Happiness, the True Glory and the bright Fountain of every Beauty. See how for thy | salvation and redemption, virtue is here bound, innocence | made captive, wisdom scoffed at, honour slandered, glory tormented and the bright fountain of beauty muddied with

IL Kings ví. tears. Ifthe High Priest Heli felt so grievously the capture of the Ark of the Covenant as to fall off his seat, break his neck and die upon the spot; what should be the feelings of the christian soul at seeing the Ark | of all the treasures of the wisdom of God carried away eaptive in the power of such enemies? “Let the heavens and the earth praise the Lord, and all that is therein, because he hath

Eto cis heard the cry of the poor and he has not despised the groans of them that are in fetters, since he desired to be captive himself for their deliverance.”

; 17.—Advance a step further, then stop to consider who | | | |

§ 4.—On those who spiritually bind the hands of our Redeemer.

. | 18.—Then, Oh most clement and most sweet Saviour, | who didst desire to be bound thyself in order to loosen our chains and to deliver us from our captivity, I beseech thee by the bowels of that mercy which prompted thee to this, not to suffer me to commit so great an offence as to bind thy hands _ as did the Jews. For they are not the only ones who have bound thy hands, but he also binds them who resists thy holy - inspirations, who will not go where thou seekest to guide him and will not accept what thou in thy mercy seekest to give | him. | 19.—He also binds thy hands who scandalizes his ao | bour, and turns him aside by evil example and counsel from E | his good resolutions, and hinders the good work thou hast begun upon for him.

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20.—The distrustful also, Oh Lord, and the incredulous bind the hands of thy liberality and clemency; because as confidence opens the hands of thy grace, so do incredulity and distrust close them. In accordance with which the Evangelist says, that thou couldst not work many wonders in thy own

Matt. x11. country because of the incredulity of thy neighbours and of the dwellers therein.

21.—The ungrateful also and the negligent bind thy hands and stop the current of thy grace, the former by omit-ting to thank thee for it, and the latter because they allow it to remain idle and waste without wishing to profit by it.

22.—Lastly those who are vain of the graces conferred by thee upon them, also tightly bind thy hands, as by their own fault they make themselves unworthy of thy grace. It is not in reason that thou shouldst continue to shower thy favours upon such as make use of them to foster their vanity, or that thou shouldst bestow the riches of thy graces upon such as do not hasten to give thee thy tribute of glory, but like treacherous thieves exalt themselves and claim that glory which belongs to thee alone.

23.—Also I should say, Oh Lord, that those who prate and make little secret of the consolations and sentiments which thou givest them, bind thy hands; because as prudent and discreet persons make not confidants of those whom they find unable to keep a secret, so thou ceasest to make confidants in thy secrets of those who publish them to others and take occasion from them to make themselves vain.

24.—At the end of the meditation, make a thanksgiving and petition as before mentioned in the second chapter.