5th Stopover: Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane

March 25, 2017

Lenten Recollection (Juniorate Community)

“Watch and pray so that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is indeed willing but the
flesh is weak,” says Jesus to His disciples in the Gospel of Matthew 26:41. Allow me to explore
the narrative of this 5th stopover in our Lenten recollection today. After Jesus said these words,
he found, unfortunately, the disciples sleeping in his return. Perhaps we can surmise that they fell
asleep while praying or meditating out of tiredness or sleeping too late at night. We learn in the
gospels that Jesus scolded His disciples when he found them again asleep. Thank God, that He
does not do this every time we fall asleep in our morning meditation in our chapel. Nevertheless,
beyond this point in the Garden of Gethsemane Prayer, we learn about prayer through Jesus’
example. Let us walk through it.
The first thing that Jesus did in the garden was to separate himself from his disciples. We
learn therefore that one good prayer practice is to separate oneself for God alone. One spiritual
book captured this prayer moment in its title, “Alone with the Alone.” Prayer is truly possible in
a noisy environment or with the crowd but nothing is more conducive than praying in a quite
solitary place. Isn’t it that we prefer to be somewhere private when he talk to our closest and dear
friends. This is also true with God as Jesus showed us in his prayer at Gethsemane. Moreover,
intense prayer would favorably happen when we set aside everything else and focus totally on
God.
The second thing Jesus did in prayer was to address God as ABBA! If translated, as we
were taught in our theology class, it means endearment to one’s father, akin to the word daddy.
Thus, it is good to ask ourselves, when was the time we called and prayed to God as a child. Or
the more radical question is did we ever pray to God as a child talking dearly to his dad? If we
realize now that we had been praying to God like a servant or an on-and-off friend or praying
like a Lord who is commanding a maidservant to do some urgent errands, I believe that it is time
to change our prayer approach to God. Jesus modeled to us one prayer approach namely praying
to God calling Him ABBA. I won’t delve here further on the biblical exegesis of the Hebrew
word ABBA assuming that we all know its meaning. Now, Jesus is telling us, “Talk and listen to
God as His one and only beloved child.”
The third thing Jesus did in the garden prayer was to candidly and honestly present to the
ABBA father his personal desires. He offered his request of “letting the cup pass from him” (Mt
26:39). This teaches us that one good attitude in prayer is direct and honest opening of one’s
heart and mind to God. Who else could understand us better than God? We, therefore, should not
fear to ask what we need from the Father. Our honesty to God is our show of trust in Him
whether He grants our prayers or not.
The fourth thing Jesus did in the garden prayer was his show of willful acceptance of
God’s will. To model of our patient acceptance of God’s will to Jesus is one good approach to
God in prayer. The question however is this: what is God’s will? We often hear it preached to us
without proper explanation. Is God’s will automatically clear to us in prayer? I believe that it is
not. Discerning God’s will in my life alone was never automatic. More so it was an arduous and
long process. Thus knowing God’s will is not an easy task. It demands a lot of time, a lot of
listening, and a lot of acceptance. As everyone knows, it took me years to accept that this is the
life that God wills for me and I have run away from it many times. Thank God He did not give
up on me. God’s will, thus, is something which we deeply feel and understand in our heart and
mind. It is an essential though not necessarily complete grasping of God’s desire and intent for
us. Peace and joy are its accompanying experience, which in a way are God’s confirmation.
Finally, in the garden of gethsemane, Jesus’ prayer to the Father ended with angels
assisting and comforting the Lord. In other words, though God does not answer our prayers still
He remains with us by sending help when we need it the most. However, we must not forget that
our prayer life is not pinned on the consolations it brings but on God who brings the
consolations.
Let us therefore imitate Jesus in our prayer life. Amen