Back to the Garden

"Father if you are willing, remove this cup from me;

yet, not my will but yours be done..." Luke 22.42

Gospels for Passion Sunday:

Entry into Jerusalem: Luke 19.28-40
The Passion: Luke 22.14-23.56

We have now entered Holy Week, the high point of our lives as Christians. This Sunday prepares us for the Triduum - literally, the "three days of feast" that is Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. On Passion Sunday, the assembly gathers in procession, carrying blessed palms and singing songs of praise for the "Son of David, the King of Israel". During the liturgy of the Word, we encounter the Passion of our Lord.

Things are different on this Sunday. We have two Gospel readings. The long narrative of the Passion does not begin with the usual assembly response " Glory to you O Lord" or end with "Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ" Just as Lent has separated us from Ordinary Time, Passion Sunday moves us into something different...

Moves us into the destiny of Jesus

Moves us into our destiny 

I admire any of our homilists who try to sum up the Passion in ten minutes. In former days, no homily was given- only silence. 

Not a bad option! 

So rather than trying to reflect on all of it, I decided to focus on Luke 22.39-46- Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, after the Last Supper, and before His arrest.

For a wonderful, comprehensive, and deep reflection on this, and the whole  Paschal Mystery, read Pope Benedict XVI's  Jesus of Nazareth Part Two: Holy Week from the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2011.) 

Back to the Garden.....

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Flashback to the 60's...
 Do you remember the song Woodstock by Joni Mitchell (made famous by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young)? The chorus was profound, especially the last refrain,  although I don't think Joni was writing about Christ's Passion:

We are stardust, 
(Billion year old carbon)
we are golden

(Caught up in the Devil's bargain)

And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden... 

Of course, this song was written in the height of the peace and love of the 1960's, celebrating the Woodstock nation "half a million strong" Going "back to the garden" implied that we need to regain the innocence that was Eden, and somehow, the Woodstock music festival was a symbol for the return to innocence. And the "Devil's bargain"? I guess anyone who "sold out" to the "establishment", and got caught up in the Vietnam war, constrictive social norms, older generation hang-ups etc. This was a very groovy song, man.

I listen it to it differently now...

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All four Gospels proclaim the Garden

 After the Last Supper, Jesus went to an isolated place to pray:

Mark and Matthew:  They went to a place called Gethsemane ("Gethsemane" refers to a place where olives are crushed to make oil)

 Luke: He came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him

John:... he went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered .

 We see then, that our tradition brings the four Gospel account together, and we remember Jesus' agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, even though John's Gospel is the only one that describes a garden. As the Gospel of John was written around the year 100, a certain depth of theology is found there.

The image of the Garden, and Jesus' prayer to the Father are critical to our understanding of who we  are as disciples....

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 It all began in the Garden
 As in Joni Mitchell's song, the use of the term "garden" in John's Gospel triggers the image of the beginning of time, and the Garden of Eden. 

We are reminded of our first parents, who made the decision to disobey the Father in order to become gods themselves. The fall, our fall, is the temptation for humanity to become divine without the Divine Godhead.

And now the Son, both truly God and truly Man, enters the Garden for our fallen sake. He cries out in anguish of the horror that is our sin, as he would take on the shame of our sins, only to suffer and die for our sake. 

For the sake of our own destiny. 

He died and rose that we might live. 

The Good Shepherd leads his flock through the valley of death

 to the pastures of the Heavenly Kingdom 

The "new Adam" (as St. Paul calls Christ) through total obedience to the Father, makes up for the disobedience of the "old Adam".

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Why are you sleeping???

In Luke's version of Gethsemane, Jesus speaks three times:

"Pray that you may not come into the time of trial" (Luke 22.40)

"Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; 

yet, not my will, but yours (Luke 22.42)

"Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that 

you may not come into the time of trial ."

Notice that, like every moment of Jesus' life, prayer is at the heart of who He is. His own prayer of supplication and obedience his bracketed by his plea to the disciples to pray for vigilance in prayer.  This is his prayer for us!! We are constantly sleeping, even though we are awake!

As Pope Benedict XVI notes in his Jesus of Nazareth:

"Across the centuries, it is the drowsiness of the disciples that opens up the possibilities for the power of the Evil One. Such drowsiness deadens the soul, so that it remains undisturbed by the power of the Evil One at work in the world by all the injustice and suffering ravaging the earth. In its state of numbness, the soul prefers not to see all of this; it is easily persuaded that things cannot be so bad, so as to continue in the self-satisfaction of its own existence. Yet this deadening of souls, the lack of vigilance regarding both God's closeness and the looming forces of darkness, is what gives the Evil One power in the world... (pg 153) 

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Love's New Name...

 I once heard Fr. Ron Rohlheiser talk about Gethsemane and the importance of the garden.
"Gardens", Father Ron said, "are places where lovers meet."

Love, now met through the anguished tears "as of drops of blood", has a new name.

No longer just "eros" - the passion of lovers and the energy that drives all creation;

No longer just "filoque" - the love of sons and daughters, fathers, mothers, and friends

Love's new name is "agape": the self-sacrificial love, the love of one not served, but one called to serve.

But...

 Love's new name will be even greater than agape.

Love's new name is...