Lenten Retreat - (Gethsemane) - First Meditation (To Gethsemane)

FIRST POINT: Do everything for the love of God

PRESENTATION

Permission

As we journey with you to the garden where your Passion will begin.

Night has fallen; Our Lord’s public ministry has concluded. The supper has ended, Christ has washed the Apostles' feet, He has handed on to them His final teaching, and He has instituted the Eucharist. He turns to the Apostles and says, “But that the world may know that I love the Father: and as the Father hath given me commandments, so do I. Arise, let us go hence.”

The time has come for Our Lord to begin His sorrowful Passion, and He indicates by His words to the Apostles the first reason for His impending suffering, that He might manifest the love He has for the Heavenly Father in His heart by doing what the Father had commanded Him.

He is demonstrating to us that the love of God does not consist in tender emotions or in tears but in the prompt and joyful acceptance of sufferings, ignominy, and crosses for His glory.

With this in mind, we might ask ourselves, do we know whether we truly love God? Are we ready to do the most difficult things commanded or given to us? Do we seize the opportunities to undertake some laborious work for the glory of God? Are we ready to bear some infirmity of body or some slight upon our reputation? When these things happen, as they naturally will, do we encourage ourselves, cheerfully meeting our sufferings or difficult tasks by reminding ourselves that we do it for the love of God?

ILLUSTRATION

A holy hermit was once troubled with a temptation of pride; he had spent so many years in the practice of prayer and penance that he had begun to imagine that he was the holiest person in the world.

While he was thinking of this, God made known to him that he was mistaken and that he was not nearly so holy, nor so far advanced in perfection, and in the love of God, as a certain poor maid in a hotel in the city.

This astonished the good hermit. “How can it be possible,” he said to himself, “that a simple maid in a hotel can be equal to me in virtue since I have done nothing else for many years but fast and pray continually? I must go and visit her and ask her what she does that makes her more agreeable in the eyes of God than I am.”

So he went to the city and easily found the person of whom he was in search. When he had told her what God had revealed to him in the vision, he asked her to let him know what great practices of piety she performed that made God love her so much and made her more perfect in God’s eyes than he was.

“My Father,” she replied, “I do not know what God can see in me that can please Him so much; I am only a poor simple, waiting-maid, and I have no learning. All that I can say to you is that I endeavour to perform all my actions with the greatest care in order that I may please God and do His blessed will. When I am carrying wood for the kitchen fire, I think of the love of Jesus in carrying His cross for me, and I tell Him that I love Him because He is so good; and in the same way, in all my other works, I always try to think of Him in some way or another.”

The hermit returned home, thanking God for having put it in the power of even the simplest and lowliest of His children to love Him as much, and sometimes even more than those who have consecrated themselves entirely to His service.

SECOND POINT: The temptation to flee

PRESENTATION

As the twelve men arrived at the Garden (remember Judas had already departed to perform his unholy task), Our Blessed Lord spoke a prophecy to the Apostles:

Then Jesus saith to them: All you shall be scandalized in me this night. For it is written: I will strike the shepherd: and the sheep of the flock shall be dispersed.

Christ addressed these words in a special way to St. Peter, who being the most fervent of the Apostles, declared himself ready to follow Our Blessed Lord and to die with Him:

Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death.

But Our Lord warns him that not only would he abandon Him, but:

Amen I say to thee that in this night before the cock crow, thou wilt deny me thrice.

Nevertheless, St. Peter persists in believing what his own fervour dictated rather than what his Divine Master foretold.

Therein lay his weakness; he trusted too much in his own good resolutions, which may be fervent in prayer, and in the moments of calm but which become weak in the hour of temptation.

Our Lord then added, when speaking to Peter and to those who were with him:

Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.

This, Satan, would do in the hour of their Master’s passion so that they would forsake Him.

The devil acts in a similar manner with us. Never does he apply himself more to draw us away from good and tempt us to evil than when he sees us most desirous and anxious to do great things and suffer much for God.

During this holy time of Lent especially, you will feel a lively desire in your heart to go with Our Lord to Calvary, but without the aid of His grace and assistance, you will abandon Him more basely than even Peter did.

Therefore, instead of presuming on your good desires, you must all the more diligently have recourse to prayer. You must be all the more humble in recommending your soul to God, according to Our Lord’s own advice to His Apostles:

Pray that ye enter not into temptation.

ILLUSTRATION

Sister Grace of Valencia was one hundred and twelve years old when she died. During her long life, Satan did not cease to tempt her, but knowing she had no strength of herself to overcome him, she always turned towards Our Lord for help and was always victorious.

“Begone, you evil spirit,” she would sometimes say— “begone, I am not afraid of you; all your efforts will never separate Sister Grace from her God. I will always live united to Jesus Christ, my beloved Spouse, and your formidable Judge. In spite of all your temptations, I am stronger than you are and all the spirits of Hell put together, so I defy you. God back, then, to Hell, out of which you came, and leave me alone.”

At other times she would say: “What do you want with me? Why do you still torment a poor old woman like me? You indeed show how weak you are when you come in this way to attack a woman weighed down with years. I order you, in the name of Jesus Christ, to go away and leave me.”

Again, she would sometimes put the evil spirit to flight by saying the holy names of Jesus and Mary. But, although the Devil was always beaten, he always returned to tempt her, for he hoped that one day he might succeed in making her offend God, and this would be for him a great triumph and a sufficient recompense for all his pains; but in this, he failed. Grace always triumphed over him because he always trusted in God and not in herself.

Let your prayer in temptation always be: “Our help is in the name of the Lord.” “My Jesus, help me.” And, by frequent and fervent communion, keep Jesus in your soul, and Satan will not be able to touch you.

THIRD POINT: Arrival at Gethsemane

PRESENTATION

As we have seen, Our Blessed Lord showed Himself more desirous to drink the chalice of His Sacred Passion than of all else:

And I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized. And how am I straitened until it be accomplished?

Nevertheless, when the hour of His Sacred Passion arrived, He was seized in the garden by a storm of terror, of fear, of weariness, and of sadness. Why? Our Lord might have kept such overwhelming emotions far from His Sacred Humanity and have met death more joyfully than those martyrs who rejoiced in the midst of their torments.

But no! He willed to suffer this violent anguish for our instruction and profit, to teach us that, within, a man may suffer the most terrible onslaught of anguish whilst at the same time he possesses his soul in great virtue and peace.

You may desire to, for instance, perform some act of humility, of charity, or of some other virtue, but being surprised by a feeling of great repugnance towards the act, you get confused, disturbed, and think that you have lost the merit of your holy desire. But it is not so.

On the contrary, this is the time to practice real virtue. For virtue does not consist in the tranquillity of our passions but in the firm resolution of the will and in overcoming the impulses of our corrupt nature. This is why Our Lord encourages you with His example to overcome them.

No one was ever attacked by such violent feelings as those which Christ overcame when He went forth to meet the death of the cross for you. Does this not then suffice to encourage you to overcome the repugnances of your rebellious nature? All the more so because our Blessed Lord has merited for you special helps for you to come away victorious. When you feel yourself assailed by violent temptation, think at once of Jesus suffering in the garden. Learn by the example of your captain the way to fight so as to be victorious.

ILLUSTRATION

Many years ago, the father of a large family was struck down by a dangerous illness. He felt the hand of death upon him, yet he was calm and happy.

His children were standing near his bed weeping, and praying to God that their dear father might not be taken away from them.

“My children,” he said, “it is the will of God that I should leave you. With my dying lips, I ask you to love and serve Him till He comes to take you to Himself. I have lived a long time in this world, and I can tell you that that alone can make you happy.”

These words, spoken at intervals and in a low voice, told the children plainly that the end was indeed near. This made them weep still more. But the good man seemed to smile rather than weep and to be full of joy rather than sorrow.

Margaret, his oldest daughter, observed this and said to him: “Ah! Dearest father, how can you be so joyful while we are so sad? You have lived a hard and laborious life and had many sorrows and trials, and now, even when death is at hand, and you are enduring so much pain, you seem not to feel it.”

“My dear child,” he answered, “long, long ago, when I was a little boy, my mother used to tell me what I have so often told all of you—those words of the Scripture: ‘Keep the Lord always before thine eyes, and fear His holy name.’ These few words gave me courage in my trials and were my defence in the moment of danger, and now they are my greatest consolation. For they have led me to the gate of my heavenly home, and I die with the firm hope that they will lead me into the presence of Him, Whom I have had always present in my heart. It is this that makes me so calm now and so resigned. And if you do as I have done, you also, at the hour of your death, shall be filled with the same blessed hope.”

This was the only legacy this poor man had to leave to his little ones, but it was of more value than the richest gift that the world could bestow.

CONCLUSION

As we have journeyed from the Last Supper table to the Garden of sorrows, we have been reminded of what is truly necessary. Christ shows us that He goes to His Sacred Passion, motivated above all by the love that He bears in His Sacred Heart for the Father and the Father’s provident will. How strong is the love we bear for Our Heavenly Father? How much are we willing to endure out of love? The answer to that question is “very little” if we rely on our own good intentions because our pitiful human hearts cannot love God enough to endure all things for Him unless they are filled with that supernatural love that comes through God’s grace. It is grace that strengthens us in those moments when we, like the Apostles, are tempted to flee in fear. It is grace that perseveres even when our fallen human nature is inclined to turn away in disgust at what we may be expected to endure. It is grace that gives peace to the heart when we must face the greatest trials for the love of God. And it is only through fervent prayer that the grace of God will be given to us.