GETHSEMANE

Our Lord Jesus was no stranger
to God’s silence and absence.

This may come to you as a shock:
Jesus, after all, is the Son of God.
He is God!
How can God be silent or absent
to His own Son?

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But this is really one of the most profound mysteries
that Holy Thursday offers to us:
How our Lord’s Passion enabled Him
to identify completely with us sinners
so much so that He too experienced God’s hiddenness
at the moment when He needed God the most.

We see this beginning to happen in Gethsemane.

Spend some moments
entering into the story and silence of Gethsemane.
Prayerfully read these passages from Mark,
and use the music to pace yourself
as you contemplate the scene
and imagine in your own mind
what happened, and how the characters felt,
especially Jesus.

Remember, don’t rush; don’t speed read.
Watch for the silences of Scripture,
and monitor what they reveal to you.

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When the music stops, consider answering
this question under COMMENTS below:

“What struck you or puzzled you about the scene?”

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116 replies on “GETHSEMANE”

I could only imagine how Jesus Christ was human after all. When he definitely knew that his hour will come any moment soon, he might have reminisced his life from childhood to adulthod. His life in ministry, his friends and how it feels good to be alive. But he also knew how God wanted this to happen soon. His agony of his death is the same agony we experience as individuals. Although not as great as Jesus but we too, thought so little it is, has gone through this stage of agony. Like when i knew my long-term boyfriend is going to break up with me. And i only wished that it will never come but deep in my heart it will come, i felt every hour as forever and also wished that this hour shall pass by but it did happen, he left me. And i feel the same way as Christ felt. But his chalice weights heavier than mine. Christ, may i imitate your ways and how he gave in to the will of God. Teach me your ways oh Lord.

Jesus’ suffering must be so intense. God as He is, He felt the pain that he asked his Father if this suffering could just be gone, yet He said “Thy will be done”. Our pains are nothing compared to His’. We can cry over our trials, but at the end ask God to be with us and help us carry and bear our crosses – His will be done.

When we are at our darkest moments, we feel so alone. We want a friend to be there for us. We need to understand that God alone is always there for us. We need to pray to him. That His will, not ours, be done. This is a prayer I have said so many times. We can’t always understand what God wants for us, but He knows best, even better than we know for ourselves.

“He began to be greatly distressed and troubled.”
and He said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful…”

Even Jesus went through times like this. He is with us through everything. Let’s not fight these human experiences, but instead accept them and find Jesus there with us.

Trials may be present and may seem endless but Jesus came 3 times asking us to just pray and dont give up no matter how tired we are. That we wanted to just sleep over our troubles.

Jesus’ experience of struggles in distress, to say Yes to God’ s invitation to suffer…yet it was his LOve to the Father that says it all, to say not my will but yours. There are moments in my life that I failed to understand how things were going but in God’s time I learned to submit and accept the real situation. ..it was hard for me to accept the death of my sister in her early age but just recently that I had a chance to be with her kids gave me consolation seeing them with a kind of life they had, contented and happy, growing up with christian values.Thanks for the gracious hands of God working in our family.
God never fails to amuse me even a times I made myself away from him, running away…yet He never got a time to be tired of waiting me to realized things that everything has a reason , and for me to be courageous enough to step forward and walk to be home and have the embrace of my God .

“See, my betrayer is at hand.” Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray Him. God knows our capacity to sin, and He already knows the sins that we are going to commit before we commit them. And yet he has the heart to forgive us as long as we repent. All we have to do is repent and we will be forgiven. And just as the Lord’s prayer goes, we must extend this forgiveness to those who sin against us. I have forgiven my mother’s husband who has violated me, though I am still healing. But this perpetrator that I have forgiven continues to be verbally abusive. I left home, but mother uses passive aggression to tell me to return home and “be humble.” She wants us to be “a family” but returning home means to be continually abused. I am lost and in the dark depths of depression. This is my gethsemane. This, I surrender to You, God.

I cannot imagine the struggle and distress that Jesus felt at gethsemane. For this, I am grateful. I have always prayed for God to be gentle with me. And he has answered my prayer centuries in advance. He sent His only Son to suffer for me…for all of us. I am and will always be humbled and in awe.

1. Why bring only 3 of His disciples?
2. Why God the Father has not answered Jesus’ supplication of sparing Him from death?

Although Jesus knew that He will suffer death on the Cross beforehand, and He knew that Father God definitely willed this, why didn’t Father God gave Jesus words of consolation or words of encouragement?

That you cannot rely on your friends because they too are imperfect, but rather to hold fiercely on to God even if we do not feel Him because He is there.

yet not what I will, but what You will

I have asked God in prayer to grant my hearts desire. And that line says “yet not what I will, but what you will”. Its a reminder for me to surrender to him but trust that He will not give what exactly I wanted but His best for me. I have fear na baka di na naman mangyari and he said this line to me “lets do it this time, with Me”. It made me at peace and now, I want to still keep on pushing to do amazing things for Him.

Sometimes we know why God is silent. We already know the answers to the questions we pose Him. The quiet time of prayer is to lay at His bossom and feel the warmth of His embrace and be encouraged so we too can say Thy will be done.

Why did Jesus , the Son of God and God Himself, has to undergo human suffering? He has suffered more than anybody. He has to plead to the Father to take the cup away from Him. I had so much sufferings in the past and at times I questioned God why. At times I just question the Lord with a smile hoping He will reveal to me His wisdom in due time. And He did. I just have to go with the flow. Whatever, so be it my Lord.

“pray that u may not enter into temptation; for the spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.”
I have fallen into temptation countless times, sometimes feeling like Judas that God couldn’t possibly forgive me anymore, that with my repeated sins, i have already exhausted His mercy.
But He does forgive; and He always does.
Grant me the grace Lord to always believe in your mercy.

Still confused about “watch & pray,” the Lord maybe asking the disciples to pray for him so that the Father may intecede to defeat the evil in Judas’ heart.

Honestly, the feeling of abandonment is awful — it is to me an unbearable pain! And yet, Jesus has experienced total abandonment.

I wondered: to whom do we trust in this kind of desolate moment? Myself?

Jesus has shown otherwise. He did not rely on Himself and still He trusted God in spite of everything: “Yet not my will, but what you will.”

He might have been disappointed with his friends, and yet he understood their struggle and encouraged them still… despite the fact he’s already suffering and afraid!

Lastly, I saw in the passage a ‘quick’ movement from fear to courage. When I fear, I tend to distrust anyone and not speak about what and how I really feel. But with Jesus’ agony in the garden, I have come to affirm that it is better to be honest with how I feel and express my fear before God and confide them to my trusted friends.

Courage is not silent. But rather it is a result of a complete surrender to God trusting that at the end, all shall be well.

Jesus showed his human side in fervent prayer crying out for help and his disappointment in discovering that he was left alone by his companions. This story also happens to us when try to solve a problem and we’re alone in seeking help surrendering and trusting that God’s has a better plan.

What struck and puzzled me at the same time was that Jesus knew he was the son of God, he knew he was the “chosen one”, YET he asked to be spared, he doubted and he needed his friends to watch over and pray with/for him.

I saw in the face of Jesus, the faces of so many people suffering from injustices, so many people who feel abandoned by the world and maybe even feel this way about God. Jesus is in solidarity with them, he too suffered, yet I cannot help but ask if it was enough that God sent his Son? I know that we cannot choose the way God loves yet it is so difficult to accept at times.

I continue to pray for the grace to grow in accepting the way God loves, and the grace to entrust myself to God so that I may share in God’s loving work, the way Jesus entrusted himself so fully and generously to his Father.

Jesus, in the midst of temptation surrendered to God’s will. The strength of one’s faith cannot be tested when one is in his/her peaceful state. It is during the times of trial and temptation, when one ought to just go into hiding so they can do whatever they want against God’s ways and will. Jesus showed us what faith really means. It is going against our own will and follow what our God wills.

What puzzled me is that why Jesus came 3x to check on Peter, James and John between His prayers to the Father. For me it felt like He was asking for help to pray to the Father who has fallen silent — who would not take the cup. Jesus was asking for prayer warriors to convince the Father to take away the cup. He knew what he was up against, and 3x He went to the Father to plead with Him but to no avail.

“Stabat Mater” is what comes to mind… like Mama Mary at the cross, standing by and watching as He suffers, experiencing the same pain, the fear, the terror, the same struggle with Him. And yet feeling helpless, without power, unable to do anything to help Him or the situation. Because it is His mission, His commitment to His Father and to His people.

He asks only that I watch and pray with Him. That I stand by Him. That I dig
my heels (or knees) and watch and suffer and struggle and feel pain, and then say not my will, but Yours.

The garden is an invitation to continue on the journey, the rough parts of it notwithstanding. To remain awake, in watch and in prayer as it unfolds.

It is terrifying….

Jesus in his being human felt tempted too. that he felt giving up His mission but ended up surrendering to the will of the Father how painful it may be. And this did not happen only once especially when scripture said that “he want away and prayed and said the same words. I realized He is not only telling Peter “the mind is willing but the flesh is weak” to remind them but to remind Himself as well of what He is telling the Father. The grace of an intense prayer life made Jesus said no to the flesh and follow the will of His Father. I saw myself in the shoes of Peter and Jesus at same time: though I have to be honest that I fell oftentimes and won sometimes. Only the Lord’s grace can save me if I seek it.

The passage reminds me how patient Jesus is with me. Just like how patient He was with His apostles, He wanted them to be by His side.

“How much do I want to be by His side? Am I willing to surrender everything unto the Father that I may find peace and calmness in things that are about to unfold?”

Please give me the heart and desire to find resignation in Your holy and loving presence.

My imagination tells me that Christ’s pleas were met with silence – the same silence we feel when we seek God in moments of irreversible loss, or great defeat.

I must admit it’s difficult to.. find peace in this, because so easily, He returns to his near-omniscience — having a mind better than our instincts, on the story goes to the steps he already knows will follow.

Perhaps the focus “ought” be that in His power, He as the Son could just say no, especially now having felt our human fear. As in the temptations in the desert, He could have forsaken God.

As one facing loss of a loved one, as a citizen of the world seeing darkness repeating simply because we as a race have failed to impart lessons learned at great cost to future generations,
how I so wish that the confidence and certainty of Christ were given to us too. Unless of course that’s precisely why there is free will, and precisely why there is this thing called faith.

I felt Jesus’s very human fear at what was to come. And saw that the disciples just didn’t get it. Just had no clue about the import of what was going to unfold – hence their falling asleep

Even Jesus, the Son of God, felt deep sorrow and loneliness. As human as we are, there are times we also hit our rock bottom. We feel helpless and alone with no one to turn to. I pray we have the the faith and trust like Jesus to call on God unceasingly.

I’ve encountered this passage many times from school and from the Church, but only last Palm Sunday did I notice what Jesus asked from his Father. That the hour shall pass yet it His Father’s will. I am currently going through something and I cannot help but be like Jesus when He was at Gethsemane. I always pray to God to please grant me my desires, but I know it is His will. Our hope and prayer is that we accept His will, His plan.

What Jesus experienced is what I have been experiencing. How can God who is all powerful and all-knowing can bring himself to be utterly powerless or helpless like me?

At Square 1, I feel and understand what Jesus has felt at that time in the passage.

There are many times in our lives that we are left alone to face things that are difficult for us to face. Company, though may provide support, can also be sources of distractions and diversions. When we are alone, we have no other way but to resign ourselves to what is coming to us. No pretences, no excuses, no one to blame, and no one to pass any burden to. And the resignation makes us vulnerable enough for us to see ourselves for what and who we really are. We all do our dying alone, I think. If we can find comfort in keeping our own company, dying alone does not seem too bad.

It puzzles me that Jesus needed to check on his disciples if they kept awake. That he needed to pull away from his prayerful state to see if they were “with him” during those trying times. He felt hurt that they failed to stay up and accepted it in the end that they cannot really share in his suffering and in what he was about to
Face. Sometimes I feel this way. That despite the supportive presence of family and friends, I have to face my challenges, my heartaches alone. Sometimes God seems so silent, allowing painful things to unfold. Yet I know He knows all these things and has a bigger plan. Yet in those trying moments my limited understanding makes me feel on my own. Even when I do
Know He is always there.

What I thought was this, that we have no idea what someone is going through, that even Jesus needed a friend, that even him as a Son of God was tested, he was once a human died and resurrected. Only then he became like his father. I just thought that maybe we are all like Jesus we will die and live again in heaven we just have to trust God’s will and obey his words.

What struck me was that the disciples did not know what to answer him when he found them yet asleep the nth time. I too don’t know what to answer to Him when I find myself having sinned for the nth time. I hope I don’t get caught with the second coming.

Why would Jesus “demand” that his disciples wait (somewhat passively) while he prays? Why didn’t he just told them to pray with him, together with him? This strikes me as odd, but also intriguing. If Jesus’ sorrow was so great, why did he choose to go at it alone? Was it something he had to undergo alone? Or, was it because his disciples never really understood what He told them about the Son of God’s fate, long before his death? Their sleeping is a kind of unawareness of the reality they were in, it seems…

Why did Jesus want his disciples to stay awake with Him while He prayed? Why wasnt them just being there not enough?

In the hour of distress, fear and loneliness, you just want your friends to console or be with you. They do not have to say anything, their mere presence, their consoling presence is good enough.

Jesus was human enough to seek this consolation to his friends. In the hour when He most needed them ” tinulugan siya”.

Jesus felt a profound sense of loneliness as he was distressed about what was coming. He even felt that his father is hiding from him. Now he can see that his friends are too, and could sense that they could end up abandoning him as well. He was looking for some kind of assurance that they were not going to neglect him but they keep doing so. I related so much to this putting so much faith in people but when they end up disappointing you, it breaks you.

I realised that even those who are very close to us may also disappoint, betray or give up on us. I am not the only one harbouring this feeling but also Jesus Christ. He has been betrayed not just by Judas Iscariot but also Peter, his very close friend, denied him thrice before the rooster crowed. As human beings, disappointments and betrayals are always at bay. It is up to me to choose whether to dwell on it or to move on.

It is in the time where Jesus was praying to his Father, but yet there was no answer from God. Jesus prayed three times to God the same prayers which I think is very frustrating and for Jesus it seems that God is hiding and asking God to take away the cup that Jesus will have to endure. But yet again the disciples were a sleep in these times. It is when Jesus needed his friends to be with him but they were asleep. “hiding”, “rejected by friends”, Jesus was alone in these times. I think same with us. In the times that we are alone temptation comes that we would just give up on God. Let us be like Jesus, that showed faithfulness, love and courage in facing God’s will.

Jesus, You have experienced loneliness and being rejected by people dear to you. Thank you for allowing me to experience your pain in Gethsemane. You know how to heal me/us, I know.

Jesus had also experienced sadness and he had also wished to have moral support from His friends. This demonstrates his humanity. He always feels us because He had experience to be human…

The disciples were relaxing while Jesus was deeply pained. But if they have been awake, can they comfort Him and remove his troubles and sorrows? Jesus was screaming his heart out amidst the silence in the surrounding- mountain, friends and even God. But it was a way to comfort His soul and allow it to be relieved by the greatest listener in the midst of His silence.

I imagined Jesus singing the song Hard to Get to God. Don’t stay hidden from me, answer my plea, Jesus begs. Let’s dance cheek to cheek. No reply. And then Jesus turns around and meets another kind of silence. No friends to
dance with either. How often have I done that? Not been around or awake when Jesus asks me to dance? Yet that is my deepest desire – I want so desperately to dance cheek to cheek with you, Lord! Help me to stay awake when you extend the invitation.

The Lord Jesus showed me in this reading that it is okay to be sad when we are faced with life’s challenges but that we should always lift up to God all our concerns and let God, who loves and cares for us give us His blessing and peace, that we might be brave and strong and remain true to Him.

That Jesus could’ve walked away from all of it and said, “Nope. Sorry, Father. I love you, but I’m not doing all of that for people who can’t even stay up with me as my hour of death draws near.”

Must be so frustrating to be asked to fulfill an obligation of your father or someone else’s, to carry on your shoulders someone else’s burden. Really what does Jesus gain for Himself by dying on the cross? Yet, he’s being asked by his Father to do this to save the life of people who can’t even be with Him in his agony.

I would be furious. I would ask over and over again, why me? Why do I have this burden? Can’t you find some other child to sacrifice his life? They are so not worthy of my sacrifice.

I’ve carried a thousand burdens, and asked many times “why me?”. And I’ve been met by silence. And as much as I would want to run away from all of these obligations, I carry it nonetheless. Because I accept it as my cross, and because there was this time when there was this Someone who could’ve walked away from it all, but didn’t.

You showed us how to face unknown and fearful situations Lord Jesus, That is by Praying and trusting in God’s plan.You showed us how human you are in your feelings of sadness, Loneliness, Feeling of abandonment, Fear etc. but inspite of this, You showed us that your sole mission on Earth is to do the Father’s will no matter what. Thank you so much Jesus, For your saving grace.

When we suffer, we often look at others to be with us. We want them to present, to comfort us, to distract us from an impending tragedy. Sadly, this time of great pain, we will be alone. Only our faith in God will be our hope.

Total surrender to God’s will similar to Jesus’ example no matter how difficult or painful it could be. Jesus also shows that it is okay to show our human side – to acknowledge our fears. However, we should not let our fears and personal preferences hinder us from fulfilling God’s will.

In times of hardship and despair, it is easy to feel so alone and helpless. This scene in Gethsemane teaches us how to deal with these times and how we should cope with it. Trust and submit to the will of the Lord God.

What did Jesus want from Peter, James and John? My human take is for Him to be comforted, among friends who will not betray Him, knowing someone already did. On the other hand, He wanted to really help make them stronger, to understand how to pray, to in the end accept God’s will.

Jesus’ feeling of abandonment, rejection, and how he pleaded for this whole suffering to stop. I was struck by the agony of it all. He was so human, so close to who I am. Yet I am inspired by his resolve — not my will, but Yours. The only human thing we can ever do, yet, in submission, the act itself becomes divine.

The mixture of fear and annoyance on Jesus’ part. It might be very hard for Jesus praying at that time for He knows His hour is very near but at the same time, His attention is also taken by non-attentiveness of Peter, James and John. He has to fulfill His greater mission, yet He still tries to understand the ‘little’ problem He has with the 3 apostles.

He needed his friends to be with him at his most distraught moments, yet they cannot be with him … he felt so alone …
yet, he was patient with his friends even after three times he asked them to keep watch with him …
A lot of times, God asked
me to spend time with him yet … his voice so clear, his call so tender … yet I will ignore or set aside and would do other nin essential, trivial things that are temporal in nature … forgive me, Lord for ignoring you in those times when you want me to spend time with you …

Total surrender “Not my will but Your will be done.” Even though Jesus has shown us the weakness of humans when faced with pain and death, He showed us as well that our lives should be totally surrendered to God, not our will, but His will no matter what. Take courage.

Jesus prayed 3 times for the “cup” to be taken away from Him, but God the Father remained silent. At the end, Jesus surrendered to the will of the Father, He fully accepted the cup again. Despite the Father’s silence, Jesus was able to proceed, because He knew what the Father really wanted.

Jesus and God the Father. They are both God so what did the God the Father answer to Jesus’s prayer? Did God answer even or was he quiet and in hiding? Whatever the answer, Jesus was like me, always asking for a favor or change of state. But am I like Jesus when God answers No to my request? Do I accept what God wills in humility and with Faith that God my Father will always do the best for me notwithstanding my hard headed ES still getting things my way.

Peter, James, & John has often heard Jesus talk about His coming passion and death, yet 5ey still denied it to themselves. They didn’t realise the moment was about to come and Jesus is asking them as his closest friends to be with Him, to learn from Him. It is the easiest option to deny the difficult things, especially our painful past. Sometimes, it is easier for me to “sleep it over” and expect tomorrow it is gone yet 3x over, after waking up, the difficult situation is still there or even worse. Yes, I do need to watch and pray that I may not be tempted to take the easier road to perdition. Learn from Jesus to take up the cross as it comes and willingly.

Even if Jesus was the Son of God. He also felt the weakness of man. How man would struggle to acgeve what is expected of him. Here i can feel that doing what should be done sometimes can be a struggle. Why can we spare the time to watch our favourite telenovela everyday and struggled to find the time each day finish writing a paper?

Could it be that the apostles Jesus chose represents the different levels of society. Peter who eventually became the leader (people in power). John whom he entrusted His mother (our family) and James the person who represents everybody.
Jesus would want each of these people to be with Him because soon He will be finishing His mission and He would want, what will come to pass, would be understood as it should be understood.
Our leaders, family, friends and society sometimes do things we do not understand, because we never did get to know the REAL reasons behind the action. If we had known its importance then we would show more interest. If the Apostles were briefed maybe they would not have fallen asleep.

Three times Jesus asked them to watch and be vigilant so that they would not be tempted. For naught .
Oh my Jesus, I am so sorry . I have been so weak.
How terrible that must have been for you. Our Father absent , with no reply to your plea. And your disciples sleeping through your desperate time.

Jesus, the son of God, the Messiah, the one who said that he will destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, is there in Gethsemane, overwhelmed by human weakness, struggling to find God in this moment of darkness. How many times have we felt the same? When God seems absent? Jesus himself struggled with this experience. He knows what we feel and prays with us when we are at our lowest.

Jesus felt troubled & distressed because He felt that God was not there with Him as He entered this most difficult period in His life. He knew the sacrifice that was required of Him. And, He feared it as any of us would if we knew the suffering He would face. This was the human side of Jesus.

He also felt disappointed, & probably alone, when His most trusted disciples were not there for Him. It teaches us that even our most well-meaning friends/relatives may not be there when we need them most. But, God will always be there if we seek Him out thru prayer.

Jesus sought after his Father, I imagine because he wanted out of his mission. He even brought friends to support him. But, Jesus’ friends couldn’t give the support he needed. Jesus anguished at the thought of what he’d have to go through. He felt alone but in the silence, Jesus found the Father. Felt the Love where everything begins and ends. Not my will but your will be done.

What I anguish over makes me feel really small in comparison. But, I rejoice in the God who loves me even so.

Jesus had to pray as He knew what was about to come. He asked God, but respected His will. He asked them to pray because He knew they will turn their back on Him. Jesus is very kind to still think of them while He is in so much distress. But the flesh is weak.

It must be also difficult for the Father to see His only son troubled, distressed and afraid. I could not imagine a parent doing that to his kid.

But we all know that IT happened because of God’s love for us – sinners. For us to have the gift of eternal life.

Jesus exhibited total obedience. He showed us strength in times of difficulty, He gave us hope, and most of all He gave us life.

Jesus felt alone, God is hiding. Yet Jesus sought Him again and again. In His loneliness, He even tried to seek fellowship with His disciples, but they were not available. This reminds me of my own season of trying to find God and looking for others to quell my loneliness. “God, where are you?” “Friends, where are you?”

“Greatly distressed and troubled…”
When we know that the hour has come….how would we feel? How would “I” feel? I would want my Father to be with me!

I felt Jesus’ helplessness and despair…He was hoping His Father will be there for Him during His darkest moment and yet God was silent…He was counting on His closest friends to at least stay with Him, even pleading with them to stay and watch. Yet, they also failed Him!
It reminded me of a dark moment in my life….feeling “alone” eventhough people are with you is so hard and painful…. I’m thankful that during that dark period, Jesus never left me…

in one of my most challenging moments, there was once a holy thursday where part of the ritual is putting off the church’s light one by one: fear, confusion, abandonment, frustration, tampo and sama ng loob altogether were the emotions that were raging inside me…
that was gethsemane. i felt like jesus.
today i am face to face with death again as i said in my previous comment. but now it is the death of someone close to me. and i cannot stare it at the face…Jesus is pleading: sit here while i pray…but i don’t have the energy to agonize with Jesus…i would rather close my eyes and sleep…i feel like the disciples.

I feel that Jesus is with you, this very moment. giving you that resting space. Sleep and rest in His arms.

I felt Jesus was teaching us how to be truly compassionate, how to accompany those who is going thru their darkest moment, how to accompany someone at the brink of death. Only thing we can do is to keep watch, stay awake, and pray and make them feel they are not alone. Our gift of presence is enough.

Jesus’ distress caused him to become unreasonable: Peter, James, John were tired (all of them were) the Passover preparations were nitty gritty, they all contended with the impending danger because Jesus’ teaching touched the ire of the ruling party then. Jesus felt the growing opposition against him, for loving the sinners and outcasts in his society. Must be that Jesus felt exasperated by the power given to the wrong hands: power that can destroy amidst which He taught love, healing, forgiveness. Jesus’ distress made him needy as a friend, he demanded too much from his inner circle who did not know what to tell him anymore. They all felt lost, afraid, distressed. But Jesus braved this, kept his mission ❤️ The baffling mystery of Divine love to this sinful, dangerous human pride, human power ? but I want to trust, it may not be that obvious but God’s ways will prevail in love in some obscure mysterious ways.

Jesus felt alone. It was as of he was on a solo journey that no one was ever in his side for support. It is true that silence can be tempting but our faith rings a bell in our mind that guides us to always live by Him and His words.

I felt that Jesus felt alone that time because He prayed to His Father but never heard nor got an answer from Him and His disciples were also sleeping despite being told to stay awake and keep watch.

Jesus felt so many negative emotions. He seemed helpless in that place … he felt alone, torn, even confused. He wanted company — the presence of his friends.

Another mystery: how did he know that the time has come and he has been betrayed, just because his disciples had been sleeping and not praying for him?

What struck and puzzled me was that Jesus asked his disciples more than once to stay awake and watch while he prayed in his moment of great distress. Why did he want them there? What purpose did they serve in keeping watch?

I am deeply wondering why Jesus insisted that his friends stay awake. They came from a meal. Definitely full. Had some wine. I would be drowsy and might have gone to sleep like they did. I wonder why the urgency to stay awake. Does this have to something to do with complacency? Is he telling me not to slumber in the midst of my giftedness but to awaken into the needs of those around me…those who need my presence? Is he telling me to be fully present to everyone, especially the ones who are near me? I wonder.

Read these verses many times before but somehow this time I felt Jesus’ frustration and helplessness. I teared up reading the lines, “and He took with him Peter and James and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled.” He then fell to the ground and prayed that not His will but God’s will be done knowing that this meant his sufering and death.

I teared because I know Jesus did this for me. I felt his immense love for me. His going back to his apostles several times to check on them, even pray for them knowing even one would betray him showed me that He just never stops caring and loving until the end.

Jesus, just like us, experienced His darkest moment. A moment wherein He was on His own, God the Father chose to be silent, and His friends couldn’t be relied on. He was in fear, yet He accepted God’s will.
When I went through my darkest moment, I too felt abandoned. Though I had my family and friends, it seemed I was alone in that long and excruciating painful moments. The hope that the pain would be over soon, and the prayers of the people around me kept me to continue serving God through my community.

Jesus’ humanity is most evident in this passage. When we are greatly challenged, we feel an absence ofGod’s presence. Our focus is on the challenge at home and usually feel alone.

Those moments are when God’s presence is at its greatest.

Jesus mind was distressed, his heart was troubled, his soul in great sorrow… Aah so much like me when I’m facing a very big problem…

But what struck me most was His SURRENDER to the will of the Father!!!

It is only when I surrender that I was able to walk to the dark tunnel… Still with fear but with HOPE

I was struck by 2 things. First, Jesus’ praying to his Father, who can do all things to remove this ‘cup’ from him, yet not as He wills, but as the Father wills — Oftentimes, I find myself asking for the same thing from God, especially when it concerns loved ones. But to ask God’s will to happen is something I still need to work on, because even if I say Thy will be done, I know I still do my best so that my will be done. I pray for the grace to always be attuned to God’s will nin my life.

The second part of the gospel that struck me is the part where Jesus kept coming back to his disciples to wake them and ask them to pray with him. Here I see how others praying with and for you really matters (as emphasized by Jesus’ act of coming back to the disciples). Indeed, in going through something, it is best to have people to pray with you and be with you even through prayers. This made me ask myself how I have been as a family or friend whenever someone asks for prayers. Do I stay awake and really fervently pray with them?

Like us, Jesus felt totally abandoned in His most trying moments. He had even prayed if it were possible that the hour might pass from Him. I have found myself feeling the same in the face of life’s challenges.
Knowing that He is God and having gone through this moment of distress encourages me to follow Him, to reach out to the Father….as He did.

To have complete faith and, let thy Father’s will be done.

The sorrow of Jesus in God’s uttered silence and absence. Jesus felt the “human” form of abandonment.

But the one striking to me is when Jesus His disciples sleeping, saying “Are you asleep? Can’t you just watch for an hour? Watch and pray so that you may not fall into temptation; the spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Jesus gave us an example to overcome our human weakness…PRAY!

Jesus invitation to stay with Him, pray with Him and be watchful with Him tells of His call to show us and be one with us in His time of human weakness. This is His way of reaching out to us as we struggle through our earthly trials. However, sadly, like His friends, we often fall asleep. Perhaps not deliberately. But nonetheless still asleep as our daily lives bring the heavy weight on our eyes and fails to follow Jesus way or messages to us.

I was struck with the scene when Jesus woke the disciples the 2nd time…the disciples were so caught up in their sleep that “they did not know what to answer him”.

When pressed by our needs, it seems difficult to understand what the Lord is asking of us. When caught up in our “worldly affairs”, we sometimes fail to see where Jesus leads us. It is only at the 11th hour that we realize the urgency of his call or invitation.

We have a saying that “God never sleeps” even when the seemingly most tragic happens to us, which even happened to His Son. Jesus trusted His Father even when His disciples could not be counted on… even when one of them had to betray Him.

In Gethsemane, Jesus invites us to trust God and His goodness…even in his silence and apparent absence… even when our prayers go unanswered…even if we find ourselves so caught up in our worries and troubles…even when we find it difficult to believe and hope…God never sleeps.

When I am afraid and reluctant to do something difficult, I still go to my parents, even now that I am already an adult. My parents give me support and security (sometimes to the point of doing things for me). I think Jesus was looking for that same kind of support and security from the Father. But just like any good parent, God remained silent, and allowed events to unfold as they are so that Jesus can set out to fulfill His mission. This reminded me that silence or “absence” from God is not out of neglect, hatred or anger, but it is out of His respect for our freedom and His desire for us to learn and love better.

Gethsemane. Where his humanity overcomes his divinity and he realizes he has to go through everything ALONE from here on out.

Chosen means all of us can feel what Jesus felt. I still do not know the reason of praying and not getting the answer directly from Him. It remains a mystery for me to this day. When Jesus indeed felt that heavy feeling what more an ordinary person like me would feel when burdens appear and no one is there.

The phrase “yet not what I will, but what You will” struck me most. It is the one phrase I feel I should take to heart, not just in mind.

Same hit: not my will but yours…
Also reminded me of the song could you not tarry with me one hour/ could you not watch and pray/ while i carried the weight of the world on my shoulder/ will you just sleep your life away…

Jesus’ sense of abandonment…by God and by his disciples. His sense of imminent death and his distress but there is no one to comfort and console him. God seems not to answer his plea, his disciples are just fast asleep.

Jesus really became man, like us! He felt fear and anguish, and prayed that the Father would spare him the agony. Jesus’ situation was more difficult because he knew about the forthcoming difficulties and pain that he will go through.

Jesus was so anxious, and he wanted his disciples to stay with him, like he wanted their affirmation that everything will be all right.

Jesus’ agony in the garden as well as crucifixion has always resonated with me because it shows Jesus’ humanity, that He also wanted to be spared from suffering, but still ended up doing the Father’s will. I really pray that I can be like Jesus, to follow God’s will unconditionally and embrace my suffering.

Jesus was fearful. Hoping his disciples would at least be there to help Him pray. He asked GOD to spare Him of what He will go through because He saw it. It was very vivid yet He asked GOD to do it if it is HIS will. It is very difficult to say that “if it is YOUR will”; yet sometimes we do not do HIS will.

I thought the death on the cross would be the will of God, that’ s why God was in silence because God loved his son so much as well as humanity and Jesus willingly chose the will of God. However, now, I do not know what God’s will was.

“Not what I will, but what You will” It takes some quiet honesty to decipher if it’s my will or God’s. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell.

And sometimes I convince myself that it’s God’s will – it’s got to be – when in fact, I’m fooling myself and have to face the truth that it’s my will… I need to learn to truly surrender my will to God: Thy will be done, Lord…

What struck me was the part Jesus got scared of what He will go through. He was just like us, so human each time we go through something serious and unknown to us. Jesus knew He has to go through it but it did not spare Him the feelings of fear, sadness, and loneliness. This made me strenghten my faith in Him as He has shown true faith in His Father. I hope that I will not be wishy washy with my faith in God at any given time. I hope that when moments come that I feel so alone, I will be like Him, brave with positive disposition. I pray that I will be as steadfast as Jesus is.

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