The Garden of Gethsemani

I remember a talk given by a priest awhile ago in which he talked about the hour of the Passion which most moved him in the atrocious agony of Jesus;  he went on to talk about the crucifixion.  I remember being a bit disappointed in a way.  I'm not saying that it wasn't a horrible moment in his Passion even beyond human understanding but the hour which most moved me in Jesus' Passion for the sheer unimaginable weight of his sufferings has always been the Agony in the Garden.  I've felt this even before reading the Volumes but could never have explained why I felt so.  But it was in the Volumes where I found the confirmation for why I had felt so about this point in his Passion.

In previous posts (http://littledivinelights.blogspot.com/2013/02/interior-sufferings.html) it already talked about how internal sufferings are much more grievous than external/physical sufferings.  Jesus specifically speaks in the Volumes about how his three hours in the Garden of Gethsemani outweighed all his other agonies.

“My daughter, men did nothing but work the skin of my Humanity, while the eternal Love worked all of my interior.  So, in my agony, the eternal Love, the immense Love, the incalculable Love, the hidden Love - not men - opened large wounds in Me, pierced Me with flaming nails, crowned Me with burning thorns, made Me drink boiling gall.  And my Humanity, unable to contain so many different martyrdoms at the same time, poured out large streams of Blood; It writhed, and reached the point of saying:  ‘Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me; yet, not my will, but Yours be done’ - which It did not say in the rest of the Passion.  Everything I suffered during the course of the Passion, I suffered all together in the agony – but in a more intense, more painful, more intimate way, because Love penetrated deep into the marrow of my bones and into the most intimate fibers of my Heart, which creatures could never reach.  But Love reaches everything; there is nothing that can resist It.  So, my first executioner was Love.  This is why in the course of my Passion there was not even a reproachful glance in Me toward those who acted as my executioners – because I had a more cruel, more active executioner in Me:  Love.  And where the external executioners could not reach, or a little part of Me was spared, Love would continue Its work and spare Me nothing. 

“This happens in all souls:  the first work is done by Love, and once Love has worked her and filled her with Itself, what appears on the outside is nothing but the outpouring of the crafting that Love has performed inside.”

Vol. 9, Nov. 25, 1909


In  all the rest of Jesus' Passion he didn't seek the help of creatures in fact while carrying the cross he talks about how he felt relief in consoling the women who wept for him.

I was thinking about Jesus carrying the Cross to Calvary, especially when He met with the women, and He forgot about His pains and occupied Himself with consoling, answering and also instructing those poor women.  How everything was love in Jesus!  He was the one who needed to be consoled, yet He was consoling – and in what a state He was consoling!  He was all covered with wounds, His head pierced with most pricking thorns, panting and almost dying under the cross – and He was consoling others!  What an example, what a humiliation for us – a little cross is enough to make us forget the duty to console others!  So I remembered the many times in which, finding myself oppressed by sufferings or by the privations of Jesus that pierced and lacerated my interior through, and being surrounded by people, Jesus would spur me on to imitate Him in this step of His Passion; and I, though embittered down to the marrow of my bones, would strive to forget about myself in order to console and instruct others.  And now, finding myself free and without having to deal with people, because of and thanks to obedience, I was thanking Jesus for I no longer found myself in those circumstances… I feel I can breathe a freer air, to be able to occupy myself only with myself.

And Jesus, moving in my interior, told me:

 
“My daughter, yet for Me it was a relief, and I felt as though refreshed, especially in those who were truly coming to do good.
Vol. 9, Sept. 2, 1910


However in the Agony in the Garden he went back to his Apostles more than once seeking comfort and help and even reached the point of asking the Father to let the chalice pass, if possible.

This agony of my Will is so painful, that my Humanity, which wanted to suffer it in the Garden of Gethsemani, reached the point of seeking help from my very Apostles - and even that I did not obtain; and the spasm was such that I sweated living blood.  And feeling Myself succumbing under the enormous weight of the agony of my Divine Will, so long and terrible, I invoked the help of my Celestial Father, saying to Him:  ‘Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me’.  In all the other pains of my Passion, as atrocious as they were, I never said:  ‘If it be possible, let this pain pass’.  On the contrary, on the cross I cried out:  ‘I thirst’ – I thirst for pains.  But in this pain of the agony of the Supreme Will, I felt all the weight of an agony so long, all the torment of a Divine Will that agonizes - that writhes in the human generations.  What sorrow! There is no sorrow that can equal this.

Vol. 20, Nov. 19, 1926


Jesus states he was left without help but he continues to go on to tell of how he did have two supports which allowed him to bear the weight of the Agony and which carried him through the rest of his Passion.

“My daughter, my agony in the garden was hard and painful, maybe more painful than that of the Cross.  In fact, if that was the fulfillment and the triumph over all, here in the garden it was the beginning, and sufferings are felt more at the beginning than when they are ended.  But in this agony the most harrowing pain was when all sins came before Me, one by one.  My Humanity comprehended all their enormity, and each crime carried the mark,  ‘Death to a God’, armed with sword to kill Me!  Before the Divinity, sin appeared to Me as so very horrifying and more horrible than death itself.  Just in comprehending what sin means, I felt I was dying - and I did really die.  I cried out to the Father, but He was inexorable.  Not even one was there to help Me, so as not to let Me die.  I cried out to all creatures to have pity on Me - but in vain.  So, my Humanity languished, and I was about to receive the last death-blow.

“But do you know who prevented the execution and sustained my Humanity from dying?  The first was my inseparable Mama.  In hearing Me ask for help, She flew to my side and sustained Me; and I leaned my right arm on Her. Almost dying, I looked at Her, and I found in Her the immensity of my Will intact, without ever a break between my Will and hers.  My Will is Life, and since the Will of the Father was immovable and death was coming to Me from creatures, another creature, who enclosed the Life of my Will, gave Me Life.  And here is my Mama who, in the portent of my Will, conceived Me and gave Me birth in time, now giving Me Life for the second time to let Me accomplish the work of Redemption. 

“Then I looked to my left, and I found the little daughter of my Will.  I found you as the first, followed by the other daughters of my Will.  Since I wanted my Mama with Me as the first link of Mercy, through which we were to open the doors to all creatures, I wanted to lean my right arm on Her.  And I wanted you as the first link of Justice, to prevent It from unloading Itself upon all creatures as they deserve; therefore I wanted to lean my left arm on you, so that you might sustain It together with Me.    

“With these two supports I felt life come back to Me, and as if I had not suffered anything, with firm step, I went to meet my enemies.  In all the pains that I suffered during my Passion, many of which were capable of giving Me death, these two supports never left Me.  And when they saw Me nearly dying, with my own Will which they contained, they sustained Me, as though giving Me many sips of life.  Oh! prodigies of my Will.  Who can ever count them and calculate their value?  This is why I love so much one who lives in my Will:  I recognize my portrait in her, my noble features; I feel my own breath, my voice; and if I did not love her I would defraud Myself.  I would be like a father without offspring, without the noble cortege of his court, and without the crown of his children.  And if I did not have the offspring, the court and the crown, how could I call Myself a King?  My Kingdom is formed by those who live in my Will, and from this Kingdom, I choose the Mother, the Queen, the children, the ministers, the army, the people.  I am everything for them, and they are everything for Me.”

Vol. 13, Nov. 19, 1921

Those that live in his Will, his own Mother taking the first role, followed by Luisa and all those who who then want to live in his Will become his support.  Mary on his right he states was his support to accomplish the work of Redemption, "the first link of Mercy.  Luisa and all who follow to live in his Will he states are "the first link of Justice."  The first opens the doors to all creatures to be saved, the second prevents Justice "from unloading Itself upon creatures."  This will need another post to examine but it seems the message here is that in his most atrocious agony which he states outweighed all the rest of his Passion in which he found no comfort from either his own apostles or the love of the Father he found his support to endure from the children of the Divine Will.  To be able to bring comfort to God is no small matter indeed and remember Jesus will never be outdone in generosity.