When Jesus completed the Last Supper, He headed out to pray. This is the start of our Lord’s passion. After Mass on Holy Thursday, the Eucharist is carried out of the church. It is placed in the sacristy or a place of honor for all to adore and watch through the night, just as the apostles did two thousand years ago.
Where did Jesus pray? “The cup of the New Covenant, which Jesus anticipated when he offered himself at the Last Supper, is afterwards accepted by him from his Father’s hands in his agony in the garden at Gethsemane.” [1] Gethsemane is Hebrew for “oil press”. It was an olive orchard near the western slope of the Mount of Olives. [2]
What did Jesus pray? Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will.” [3] He prays this once more after finding the apostles asleep. It is interesting to note that Jesus prayed the same prayer twice to His Father in heaven. Many people will argue that Catholics pray the same prayers over and over too many times. It does not matter if you say a prayer once or a hundred times, what matters is your sincerity and humility in prayer. “Humility is the foundation of prayer.” [4] Jesus comes humbly to God, only looking to do the Father’s will. Jesus is not trying to back out of His commitment to what the Father wants. In fact, He embraces and loves it all the more because He realizes that this is the only way for salvation for His people. “…he expresses the horror that death represented for his human nature. Like ours, his human nature is destined for eternal life; but unlike ours, it is perfectly exempt from sin, the cause of death [5]… By accepting in his human will that the Father’s will be done, he accepts his death as redemptive, for ‘he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree’ [6]” [7]
What else happened in the garden? Jesus’ prayer was so fervent and stressful He Jesus began to sweat blood. [8] This is biologically possible, although it is rare. When someone puts an immense amount of stress on the body, the blood vessels around the sweat glands can break and bleed out of the pores of the skin. Jesus had to deal with the weight of all of mankind’s sins. Yes, He was God, but He was human as well. His will is perfect because He had no sin, but this does not keep temptation and Satan’s attempts away. In fact, one can argue that Jesus faced the greatest of Satan’s wrath at His final hours. We see the angels coming to His aid to help Him. [9]
Search: Physical meditations on the Sorrowful Mysteries
What does Jesus show us with His prayer? His prayer in the agony of the garden is very similar to the Our Father prayer that he taught His disciples. The key point is God’s will over our own will. “For this reason Jesus ‘gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.’ [10] And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.’ [11]” [12] By uniting ourselves to Jesus on the cross, we can unite in His prayer of obedience to God’s will at every moment. “Jesus teaches us that one enters the kingdom of heaven not by speaking words, but by doing ‘the will of my Father in heaven.’ [13]”[14] Jesus was fully united with the Father through His prayer life. Prayer is essential for us too, “for if we neglect our dealings with God, little by little our spiritual life begins to languish. If you ‘abandon prayer you may at first live on spiritual reserve and, after that, by cheating’ [15].” [16]
“When the hour had come for him to fulfill the Father’s plan of love, Jesus allows a glimpse of the boundless depth of his filial prayer, not only before he freely delivered himself up (Abba…not my will, but your.’), [17] but even in his last words on the Cross, where prayer and the gift of self are but one.” [18]
Search: The Seven Last Words and the Mass
What can Jesus’ prayer life teach us? By learning about the prayer life of Jesus, we learn how God wants us to pray. “Jesus prays before at every decisive moment of his mission: before his Father’s witness to him during his baptism and Transfiguration, and before his own fulfillment of the Father’s plan of love by his Passion. [19]” [20] When we are faced with a life altering decision, do we seek God’s wisdom and will or do we follow our own? We must have complete faith in God as our Father, know that He will provide all that we need, and trust in His will no matter what. “Once committed to conversion, the heart learns to pray in faith. Faith is a filial adherence to God beyond what we feel and understand. It is possible because the beloved Son gives us access to the Father. He can ask us to ‘seek’ and to ‘knock,’ since he himself is the door and the way. [21]” [22]
[1] CCC 612
[2] Footnotes NAB Mt. 26:36
[3] Mt. 26:39
[4] CCC 2559
[5] Cf. Rom 5:12; Heb. 4:15
[6] 1 Pt. 2:24; cf. Mt. 26:42
[7] CCC 612
[8] Lk. 22:44
[9] Lk. 22:43
[10] Gal. 1:4
[11] Heb. 10:10
[12] CCC 2824
[13] Mt. 7:21
[14] CCC2826
[15] J. Escriva, Furrow, 445
[16] Fernandez, In Conversation with God 2, 27.1
[17] Lk. 22:42
[18] CCC 2605
[19] Cf. Lk. 3:21; 9:28; 22:41-44
[20] CCC 2600
[21] Cf. Mt. 7:7-11, 13-14
[22] CCC 2609