Gethsemane
We all know the events that took place in the garden of Gethsemane: Jesus prayed, the apostles slept, Judas betrayed Him, and He was arrested. But we really don’t know what happened in the garden. Our understanding must begin with reflecting on what sin does to our souls. Sin darkens the intellect, separates us from the love, truth, and beauty that is God, and strangles the breath from our souls. The sorrow is that the longer we remain in sin, the more we become accustomed to the darkness and the lack of breath. We can even go so far as being impressed with our own “wisdom,” lying to ourselves that we have our own light. The deeper we go into sin, the more our souls gasp for air and the more we search in all the wrong places for relief and for light.
It was into this darkness that Our Lord descended when He took on the sins of the whole world — and this suffering truly goes beyond human understanding. Eternally perfect, descending from Heaven into a body free from all stain of sin, living in perfect love and communion with the Father with every breath of His life, to suddenly have all of our sins heaped upon Him caused so much physical agony that He sweat blood. Pause for a moment with that thought. He sweat blood. No other human being has ever suffered this much.
But even this was not the worst. He actually felt everything we feel after we sin: guilt, shame, unjust anger when our sins are pointed out to us, sorrow, abject misery, desolation, and the worst of all – the emptiness that is felt by those who are so immersed in the deepest pits of sin they can no longer feel anything. These are the ones so engulfed in evil that at the moment of death they look at the face of God with such hatred that they leap willingly into the fires of hell. Yes, Jesus felt all these things – the pain beyond bearing and the reason why the angel rushed to His side.
Jesus loves us so much that He willingly endured all of this. Jesus’s depth of compassion for us poor sinners has no bounds. He understands everything we are suffering and desires to free us from the personal hells we create for ourselves when we sin. He delights in forgiving us, especially those in most need of His Mercy.
When we humble ourselves to ask for forgiveness, Jesus looks beyond the filth and stench we have heaped upon our souls. He looks with compassion and mercy on souls writhing in agony. He sees the heavy chains that have weighed us down for so long that we have long since stopped trying to move. He sets us free. As He promised, He never rejects a contrite heart. He rejoices in forgiving us, setting us free from our chains, seeing our souls breathing freely and reflecting God’s light as the moon reflects the light of the sun.
This is the Jesus we encounter in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Like the prodigal son approaching the forgiving father, Jesus opens His arms wide to receive us. Do you desire to hear the words, “. . .through the ministry of the Church, may God grant you pardon and peace and I absolve you of your sins in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” ? Jesus’s desire to give us His mercy is even greater than our desire to receive it. Let’s not keep Him waiting.
Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
