Reflecting on the Word

By Rev. James A. Wallace, C.Ss.R.

One of the earliest pictures of Jesus I can remember portrayed him at prayer  in the garden of Gethsemane. I still see his hands, clasped tight. They spoke to  me of an inner struggle long before I knew about his words, “Father, all things are  possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will”  (Mark 14:36). More than any other scene in the Gospels, this one brought home  what it meant to say Jesus was truly man. 

Today’s Gospel has been called John’s version of the agony in the garden. The  word agony (agonia in Greek) means struggle, and we can hear the struggle in  Jesus’ awareness that “the hour” he has spoken of before in John’s Gospel, beginning at Cana, has finally arrived. It is the hour of his being lifted up—the hour of  both his glory and his crucifixion. It is why he came into the world, and yet we hear  him say, “I am troubled.” We hear him wrestling with himself, asking for release  from the hour, but then recognizing that it holds “the purpose for which I came.” 

Hebrews affirms this when it says “he offered prayers and supplications with  loud cries and tears to the one able to save him from death, and he was heard  because of his reverence” (5:7). He was able to bear the suffering and become  the source of eternal salvation for all who listen to him and follow in his steps. 

Consider/Discuss

  • Do you desire a new heart? What would be different about it?
  • How do Jesus’ words about the seed falling into the ground, dying,  and only then producing fruit challenge you? What needs to die in  you? 

Responding to the Word

Loving God, give us a new heart in these final days of Lent, a heart that carries  within it your loving imprint, that we may always know your will and yield to it,  even when it calls for a dying of some kind. In such dying, may we trust that you  will bring forth new life.

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