"Even in the most painful of our sufferings, we are never alone."Adorers: "Living close to pain is possible through the Eucharist and prayer".We are already in Lent. Just as, throughout the year, there are times for figs, tangerines or strawberries, there are also times to harvest more grace in God's field that is the world. In these forty precious days, in the Mediterranean area - where Jesus was born, lived and died - and in other parts of the world, we will see the most courageous plants bloom, those that were able to overcome yet another winter. This can serve as a reminder to prepare for the central event of the Christian year: the Easter of the Lord's Resurrection.
The same story every year? No, none Easter is equal to another. Objectively and subjectively speaking. Each turn of the screw is similar to the previous one but not the same, because now the screw is deeper than before. That is why it is worthwhile to review the main events of the life of Jesus Christ with a small series of articles that will help you learn or remember the very special meaning of that first (and bloody) Passover in Jerusalem.
The Garden of Olives
We are situated in the Garden of Olives, also called Gethsemane, where Christ's soul began to be troubled. The words he uses ("My soul is sorrowful even unto death": Mt 26:38) come from the Psalm 43:5This already begins to offer an interpretative key to everything that will follow until the following day: the books of the Bible Jewish women were already prophesying the Lord's suffering.
This garden is located on the outskirts of Jerusalem, separated by the valley of the Kidron stream. Gethsemane, or literally "oil press" in Hebrew, is one of the most venerated sites in Christianity. As Pope Benedict XVI makes clear in his book "Jesus of Nazareth"The present trees there do not date back to the time of Christ, since the Roman emperor Titus, in 70 A.D., had all the trees around Jerusalem cut down, including those on the Mount of Olives. Peter, John and James, the most special of the apostles, together with Jesus, went there.
From there you can see perfectly and closely the beautiful Temple and the highest and oldest part of the city. The Lord used to meet there with his disciples -Judas Iscariot included- to pray in more tranquility and with a good view. Holy Thursday was the last time he did so, and it was at night.
Moving away from the three, Christ prostrated himself on the ground, an unusual way of praying for a Jew, accustomed to elevate his soul to God standing upright and perhaps with his arms open, in an attitude of readiness and receptivity. The group had finished dinner a short time ago, and the whole context of the celebration of the Jewish Passover, added to the usual intense rhythm of preaching with the Master, brought them an irresistible sleepiness. Apart from these natural reasons - to which, by the way, Jesus was also subject - supernatural ones are added: the trio did not share the Lord's concerns, they had not correctly understood the three announcements of the Passion that had been made to them, they did not vibrate in unison with the redemptive yearnings of Jesus.
Later, when they tried to put all this in writing (John directly through his gospel, and Peter through the evangelist Mark), they could remember the affectionate reproaches Christ made to them that day; instead Mark had to reconstruct, based on the Lord's Prayer and other teachings of Jesus, what He would have said to the Father in his intimate prayer from a distance while the three chosen among the chosen slept uncontrollably. Matthew and Luke would drink from Mark's source to write their gospels. Only Luke will also tell us that the Lord came to sweat blood during that afflicted prayer, and that an angel came down from heaven to comfort him. Perhaps he learned of this because James told him.
Betrayal
After aligning all his human interiority with the divine will, Jesus distinguishes in the distance some torches and some increasing metallic noises and numerous footsteps approaching. He knows who they are: Judas with a group of Jews. Even so, he does not fail to call his former apostle "friend," for his omniscience does not prevent him from giving Judas a last chance to repent. In vain: it is the hour of darkness. Then his courage is so great that the simple phrase "I am" makes Judas and his group fall to the ground. Any Jew of the first century A.D. who heard the expression "I am" immediately remembered God's words to Moses when he asked him his name: "I am who I am", God answered, to which the patriarch himself could not answer.
The experienced and cautious Peter had brought a sword with him and reacted violently: he cut off the ear of one of the other side. In his disordered eagerness to protect his beloved God and Lord, he had previously tried by word of mouth to dissuade him from facing death, and for this he was severely reprimanded; now, however, he goes further and tries to prevent this outcome with violence, and again he is corrected. A final miracle of physical healing, the restoration of poor Malchus' right ear, confirms that even in extreme situations, Jesus does not cease to be merciful and compassionate to all.
In the book "The Agony of Christ".St. Thomas More emphasizes the fact that, although Judas handed Jesus over to be put to death, Judas' own death preceded that of Jesus. In fact, St. Matthew tells us that Judas, "after throwing the silver coins into the Temple, went and hanged himself" (Mt 27:5). Poor man! Seeking the death of the one who had given him earthly life and eternal life, he ended up committing suicide like a condemned man. If only everything could have been resolved at the last moment with a simple and sincere act of contrition!
But Judas was not the only apostle traitor. All the others, with the exception of the adolescent John, fled as if they had never met Jesus or promised to suffer martyrdom for his sake. Indeed, they did not yet know him completely, so they fled. We would most likely have done the same. To face death for Christ is a grace, and we only receive it if God wants to give it to us. However, that was the moment when the Lord was going to be abandoned. The mob caught Jesus and, like an evildoer, took him away. They wanted to rid Israel of the one who seemed to them to be a false prophet or a false Messiah. They thought they were saving Israel. And, indirectly, they were in fact doing so, but in spite of themselves. God's plan is fulfilled.
