“Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if
this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” (Matthew 26: 42)
Christ’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane teaches us one of
the most important lessons in the Bible.
When we are ready to submit our fears, pains and future to the will of
God without conditions, we win. When we
say the Rosary, we reflect on this truth in the First Sorrowful Mystery. Our Enemy holds us in captivity through
fears. The biggest fear for everybody is
the fear of death. Christ conquered this
fear for us by dying. But before He was
crucified, the first step He took towards Calvary was to submit His will
unconditionally to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. The same spirit of submission was exemplified
by Daniel when he brushed aside the fear of death by answering Nebuchadnezzar
in similar words: If we live we live; if we perish, we perish. We also see this when the Prophet Habakkuk writes:
Harvest or no harvest, food or no food, we
shall praise the Lord.
Why do we dread the will of God? I foolishly imagine that God is not for me
but against me. Even as adults, we still
think of the lamp and the light that God provides for us in His Ten
Commandments as constraint to our liberty.
“Thou shall keep holy the Lord’s
Day” is one commandment that changed my perspective on all the other 9
commandments. My appreciation for the
Lord’s Day keeps growing. Then one day, I
asked, “Could this commandment be
typical of the other nine?” Of course, I answered after a brief
reflection.
When we are confronted by the unthinkable, it is not only
safe but prudent to pray with Christ, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink
it, your will be done.” (Matthew 26: 42)
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