Dear Nolan, As Jesus and his disciples enter the Garden of Gethsemane, he tells them: Stay awake, watch! The implication is that theyre about to learn something; a lesson is to be taught. Ron Rolheiser, OMI THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN: THE PLACE TO STAY AWAKE As we know, they didnt stay awake, they fell asleep, not because the hour was late and they were tired after a long day, nor even because of the wine theyd drunk at the supper. They fell asleep, Luke says, out of sheer sorrow. They fell asleep because they were disconsolate, disappointed, confused, and depressed. And, because of that sleep, they missed the lesson they were supposed to learn from watching Jesus in his prayer. What was that lesson? Jesus, himself, explains it three days later on the road to Emmaus when, in speaking of his suffering and death, he asks: Wasnt it necessary? What the disciples were supposed to see and grasp in the Garden of Gethsemane was the intrinsic connection between suffering and transformation and the necessity, in that process, of being willing to carry tension, disappointment, and unfairness without giving into despair, bitterness, recrimination, and the urge to give back in kind. We fall asleep out of sorrow whenever we become so confused and overwhelmed by some kind of disappointment that we begin to act out of hostility rather than love, paranoia rather than trust, despair rather than hope. We fall asleep out of sorrow whenever we sell short whats highest in us because of the bitterness of the moment.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Apr 2014 23:23:39 +0000
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