I do not know Jesus’ experience.
But I know my own. And that is
where I can meet Jesus,
who also went through the experience of anguish
— whose sweat in the Garden of Gethsemane
and the few words he managed to gasp out
were the way he shared what he was going through
with his Father.
with his Father.
--Sr. Bernadette Reis, FSP
The real struggle for Jesus as he sweated blood in Gethsemane was not whether he would allow himself to die or invoke divine power and escape. The question was only about how he was going to die: In bitterness or love? In hatred or forgiveness?
That’s also our ultimate moral struggle, one which won’t just confront us at the moment of death but one which confronts us daily, hourly. In every situation in our lives, small or large, where we are unfairly ignored, slighted, insulted, hated, or victimized in any way, we face a choice of how to respond: Bitterness or understanding? Hatred or love? Vengeance or forgiveness?
--Fr. Ron Rolheiser
Facebook, April 8, 2019
Image source: Luca Giordano, The Agony in the Garden (17th c.), with a thorough study of the painting here: https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/beholding-beauty-giordanos-agony-in-the-garden/
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