MARY, OUR MOTHER

THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN

2. The Prayer.
Once in the Garden, Jesus leaves His Apostles and withdraws to pray alone. The whole weight of that black, sad night falls on Him. See Him lying on the ground, borne down, overwhelmed by a weight which He cannot bear. That weight was the sins of mankind. That weight was your sins. And how heavily do they weigh down the shoulders of the Saviour! They beget an anguish in His soul which goes on increasing and increasing until it becomes a real agony. What a struggle takes place in His heart! Regard Him clearly and try to fathom something at least of His horrible sufferings.

Then lift your eyes and see in the house of Bethany, or perhaps in the same supper room, a similar scene taking place. Our Heavenly Mother also has fallen to the ground in prayer. Her heartbeats synchronize with those of Her Son. She cannot do anything else than what Her Son is doing. What a frightful night! How long are its hours! Impossible to sleep. Even resting is out of the question. It is a night of struggle and of agony. A night of prayer. But what a tender, fervent, loving prayer is that which Mary raises for us! She does not ask the Eternal Father to spare His Son. She does not refuse the cup of sorrow. She only wishes the fulfillment of His Will which She accepts, immensely painful though it be.

She implores pardon for the world. Pardon for each and everyone of us. She begs that the sufferings of Her Son which have just started may not be useless for souls. That we may know how to profit from the passion and death of Jesus, from the great graces which through them He has merited for us.

And the agony of Jesus continues. His Heart, no longer able to bear so much sorrow, breaks forth into a torrent of blood. His cold and abundant sweat of agony is now a sweat of blood. It is a Divine Blood that flows down in abundance over His body, soaks His clothes and penetrates the ground.

Seer the astonishment of the angels of God at that sight. see Mary. She also follows that agony, gauges the intensity of the torture, watches the first stage of immolation, the first shedding of the Blood of the supreme Sacrifice. What will the Mother of God do? In the midst of Her sorrow She acknowledges that Blood to be the Blood of God. She stoops and collects some, kisses it and adores it. She is bathed in the redeeming price of our salvation: the first to prfit by that Divine Blood. All that She has received, Her immaculate purity, Her fullness of grace, Her immense sanctity, all is the fruit of that Divine Blood.

The Apostles have fallen fast asleep during prayer. But Mary is awake. She does not waste such precious moments. She does not abandon Jesus even for an instant. Jesus might lament that none of His well-beloved disciples accompanied Him in His agony; but such was not the case with His Mother. From Her retreat, She follows step by step the development of the scene and shares the sufferings of Jesus, drinking together with Him the chalice of sorrow.

[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]