Reflections
on the Passion
by Father
Doyle
October 12, 1956
NIHIL OBSTAT:
JOANNES A. SCHULIEN, S.T.D.
Censor liborium
IMPRIMATOR:
+ ALBERTUS G.MEYER
Archiepiscopus Milwauchiensis
Monday
After the First Sunday
in Lent:
OUR
consideration of the
triple prayer of our Blessed Lord in the
Garden of Olives should have convinced us of the merit and necessity of
continued prayer when we are afraid, downcast, depressed, tempted, or
forsaken.
There were numerous
other
occasions when Christ addressed His petitions
to His eternal Father and the response was immediate. The raising
of Lazarus is a case in point. In the Garden of Olives, however,
the Master prayed three times and His prayer was unanswered. We
have seen that had God the Father answered Christ’s prayer and “let the
cup pass away” from Him, the world might not have redeemed. When
God does not answer prayer it is for the greater good.
In the Old Testament
we read
that the prophet Elias, when he asked God
to confound the pagan prophets of Baal by a miracle, hardly had spoken
his prayer when a miraculous fire came down from heaven and consumed a
holocaust set on the altar, and even burned water in the trench.
When the same prophet Elias prayed for rain for God’s people, he had to
repeat his prayer not once, twice, or three times, but seven times (Kings 18:44).
When God
refuses
to answer prayer it is for a greater
good. When He delays the answer it is to put the endurance of the suppliant to
a test.
The Jews in Bethulia
prayed
all night, desiring the help of the God of
Israel when Holofernes besieged their city, but the more they prayed,
the more desperate the situation appeared. Yet they persevered,
and God sent them a deliverer in Judith.
Another important
lesson
which we can learn from our Lord’s prayer in
Gethsemani is this, that all our petitions to God should close with in
acquiescence to the divine will. Hear our Lord say in the depths
of His agony – “Not my will but thine be done” (Lk. 22:42).
It is right for us
to plead
earnestly for what we want – earnestly,
perseveringly, but never insubmissively. We should recognize that
God will not give us what will do more harm than good. Many of us
have lived long enough to thank God that He did not give us what we
asked in prayer in every instance.
The best thing
possible for
us is always what God wills for us.
Sometimes it may be pain, worldly loss, or some bereavement; yet His
will is always love, and in simple acquiescence to God’s will, we shall
always find our highest good. No prayer, therefore, is pleasing
to God which does not end with the refrain of Gethsemani: “Not my will
but Thine be done.”
This is the way to
peace, for
as we yield with love and joy, and merge
our will with God’s His peace will flow like a river into our souls.
Resolve that each
time today
you hear a clock strike the hour, you will
say reverently, “Not my will but Thine be done.”
Tuesday
After the First
Sunday in Lent:
CHRIST
prayed three times in
the Garden of Olives. After each
prayer was finished, and the words of those three prayers, by the way,
were nearly identical, the Master went back to His Apostles, and in
each instance He found them asleep.
Between the first and second
sessions of prayer our Lord uttered a
powerful warning, for He said to the drowsy disciples: “Watch and
pray, that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is
willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mt. 26:41).
“Watch and pray,
that you may
not enter into temptation” is a powerful
warning that no man should disregard. In wartime it is not
unusual to find a soldier court-martialed and summarily executed for
falling asleep at his post. Life is a constant warfare against
the legions of hell, and we must be ever watchful against sudden
attacks from the enemy. But to watch alone is not enough. A
sentinel posted on the walls, when he perceives the enemy gathering for
an attack, would be foolhardy indeed, to presume to engage the enemy
singlehanded. The wise soldier would send word to his commanding
officer of the enemy’s approach. Watchfulness lies in observing
the imminent approach of the enemy and prayer is the telling of it to
God. Watchfulness without prayer is presumption, and prayer
without watchfulness is a mockery.
The great Abbot John
remarked
that a man who is asleep at the foot of a
tree and sees a wild animal coming toward him, will most certainly
climb up into the tree to save himself. “So we,” says the
Abbot, “when we perceive ourselves beset with temptations, ought to
climb up to heaven and by the help of prayer, retire safely into the
bosom of God.”
The saints have
taught that
short prayers are more effective in time of
temptation. St. Athanasius, for instance, taught that the opening
phrase of the sixty-seventh psalm produced miraculous effects for those
who used it in time of temptation. Here are the words: “Let
God arise, and let His enemies be scattered, and let those that hate
Him fly before His face.”
Note well, that our
Lord did
not tell His disciples to be relieved of
temptation altogether, but rather that they “enter not into
temptation.” God tempts no man, but He permits us to be tempted
so to prove ourselves. “Blessed is the man who endures
temptation; for when he has been tried, he will receive the crown of
life” (James 1:12). St. Bernard, explaining these inspired words
of St. James, says: “it is necessary that temptations should
happen, for who shall be crowned but he that shall lawfully have
fought, and how shall a man fight, if there be none to attack him?”
Be undeceived –
position,
piety, or experience will not spare you
temptations. Adam fell when he was in the state of grace and
Peter fell soon after his first Holy Communion.
Resolve today to
make use of
the holy names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
in the very outset of temptation. Try to commit the first
sentence of the Psalm 67 to heart, and promise yourself to make use of
it as soon as you discern the approach of any temptation.
Wednesday
After the First
Sunday in Lent:
AS
CHRIST ended His third
prayer in the Garden of Gethsemani, He lay
prostrate on the ground horribly shaken by the whole ordeal. The
one thing He prayed for was not granted Him, but Holy Scripture relates
that, “there appeared to him an angel from heaven to strengthen him”
(Lk 22:43).
It was an angel from
heaven
who announced to His mother Mary that she
had been chosen to fulfill a creature’s greatest service to her
God. When men refused the Son of God recognition on this earth,
angels filled the skies to announce Him and sing His glories.
When cruel men sought His life in infancy, an Angel directed the Holy
Family to the safety of Egypt. When He was tempted in the
desert: “Behold angels came and ministered to him” (Mt. 4:11).
Little wonder that when He was in agony in the Garden of Olives an
Angel should succor Him.
It is well to note
that
Christ’s prayer was not answered in the way he
desired. He had prayed the first time that the chalice might pass
from Him. It did not pass but His strength was increased.
He prayed the second time for relief from His burden, but while the
burden was increased His strength was augmented to match it.
Christ prayed the third time, saying the selfsame words He had spoken
on the two previous occasions. His agony did not cease but He
found the courage “to pray the more earnestly” (Lk. 22:43). Learn
from this that when God seems most deaf to our pleadings in prayer, He
may prefer to make heroes of us. Be assured that in times of
temptation, and trial, God’s Angels will ever be at our side to
comfort, encourage, and succor us.
Seize this occasion
to
bolster your devotion to the Angels, and in a
special way, to St. Michael.
St. Alphonsus
Liguori
says: “Devotion to St. Michael is a sign of
predestination.” In the year 1751, St. Michael appeared to an
illustrious servant of God, Antonia
d’Astonae, a Carmelite in Portugal. He expressed the wish that
she should publish for his honor nine salutations corresponding to the
nine choirs of Angels. It was to consist of a Pater and three
Aves in honor of each of the angelic hierarchies and then four Paters,
the first in his honor, the second for the honor of St. Gabriel, the
third for St. Raphael, and the last for the Guardian Angel. As a
reward the glorious prince of the celestial court promised:
“Whoever would
practice this
devotion in his honor would have when
approaching the Holy Table, an escort of nine Angels chosen from each
one of the nine choirs.” In addition, for the daily recital of
these nine salutations he promised his “continual assistance and that
of all the holy Angels during life, and after death deliverance from
purgatory for themselves and their relations.”
In time of
temptation call
upon the holy Angels and Archangels to
defend and protect you. Never let a day go by without a special
petition to the heavenly choirs – especially your guardian Angel.
Thursday
After the First
Sunday in Lent:
IN THE
Transfiguration on
Mount Tabor, our Blessed Lord’s body was
bathed in light and His Divinity burst through the frail human bonds
that were united to it. In the Garden of Gethsemani, the human
body of the Son of God was bathed in bloody sweat that rushed from
every pore. Once the Angel had strengthened our Lord, the
transformation was amazing. From that moment on to the end of the
Passion, we shall never see Him falter, for even one moment. He
had strength for Himself and strength for all of those who came to Him
or crossed His path.
The moment the third
prayer
was ended, Holy Scripture notes that Christ
went to His disciples and said: “Sleep on now, and take your
rest! It is enough; the hour has come” (Mk. 14:41). The
time for watching was past. Christ had passed through His agony,
and on his adorable face was the radiance of peace and the fire of
zeal. No longer did He need the help or the sympathy which in
vain He had sought in the darkness. He looked toward the city
gate, and there was the traitor coming. There was neither need or
use now for the disciples’ waking and watching, and they might as well
sleep on. The lesson is plain. Whatever we do for our
friends, we must do when they are in need of help. If one is
sick, the time to show sympathy is while the illness continues.
If we allow him to pass through this illness without showing him any
attention, there is little use, when he is well again, for us to offer
kindness.
When one of our
friend is
passing through some sore struggle with
temptation, then is the time for us to come close to him and put the
strength of our love under his weakness. Of what use is our help
when the battle has been fought through to the end and won without
us? Or suppose the friend was not victorious; that he failed –
failed because no one came to help him, is there any use in our
hurrying up to him then to offer assistance?
It was Ruskin who
once wrote
these words: “Such help as we can give to
each other in this world is a debt we owe to each other; and the man
who perceives superiority or a capacity in a subordinate, and neither
confesses nor assists it, is not merely the withholder of kindness, but
the committer of evil.
If we are inclined
to
criticize the weakness of the Apostles in
sleeping rather then comforting their Lord and their God in His hour of
agony, do we not do a simulate deed when we withhold help and
consolation from our neighbor. “As long as you did not do it for
one of these least ones, you did not do it for me” (Mt. 25:44). Let us
always see Christ in our neighbor and this
very day make a real effort to be a support, comfort, and defense of
someone who needs our help – spiritual or temporal. Never let the
sun set any day without having done one charitable act for a
neighbor. Remember always these words of Holy Scripture:
“that one’s neighbor should be loved as oneself is a greater thing than
all the holocausts and sacrifices.
Friday
After the First Sunday
in Lent:
THE
ordeal of Gethsemani now
over, our Blessed Lord walks with sort of
a triumph toward His sleeping Apostles. Three times He had
counseled them to pray, three times He had asked them to watch with Him
and three times the Apostles had failed Him.
Just anger had
surged through
Christ when He took a rope and drove the
money-changers from the temple, because they dishonored His Father’s
house. His closest friends who, a few short hours earlier, had
received their first Holy Communion, had failed Him, and failed Him
badly in His hour of need – surly He would have been justified had He
upbraided them. But no. The gentle Christ walked over to
where they took their rest, and simply said: “Rise, let us
go” (Mk. 14:42). Oh, the hope springs up from those words!
The disciples
had
failed sadly in one great duty – they had slept
when the Master wanted them to watch with Him. They slept at
their post. He had just told them that they might as well sleep
on, sofar as that service was concerned, for the time to render it was
gone forever. Yet there were other duties before them, and Jesus
calls them to arise and meet these. Because they had failed in
one hour’s responsibility they must not sink down in despair.
They must arose themselves to meet the responsibilities that lay ahead
of them.
What a consoling
lesson for
all of us. Because we have failed in
one duty, or many duties, we must not give up in despair. Because
a young man or woman has wasted youth, he or she must not therefore
lose heart and think the loss of youth is irreparable. The golden
years can never be recalled – the innocence, the beauty, the power may
have slipped through our fingers – but why should we squander all
because we squandered some? Because the morning has been thrown
away, why should all the day be lost?
The lesson Christ
taught at
the end of His agony in Gethsemani is for
all who have failed in any way. Christ ever calls to hope.
He bids us rise again from the worst defeats. With Christ there
is always margin enough to start again and build a noble life.
Right down to the doorway of death there is time. Paul persecuted
the church, but died for it. The door of opportunity opened to
the penitent thief on the cross in his dying hour. So it is
always. In this world, blessed by divine love and grace, there is
never the need to despair. The call after every defeat or failure
still is, and always will be, “Rise, let us go.”
Strive every day to
make acts
of faith, hope, and charity. Today
let us beg for an increase of the virtue of hope.
Saturday
After the First
Sunday in Lent:
WHEN our
Lord was saying to
His Apostles: “Rise, let us go,” He added
these painful words: ”He who will betray me is at hand” (Mk. 14:43).
St. John gives us a few more details for he writes: “Now Judas,
who betrayed Him, also knew the place, since Jesus had often met there
together with his disciples, Judas, then, taking his cohort, and the
attendants from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with
lanterns, and torches, and weapons” (Jn. 18: 2-4).
The story of Judas
is perhaps
the saddest in all of the Bible.
The Evangelists seem fascinated with that name Judas and when they have
occasion to pen it, they call him either “Judas, one of the twelve” or
“the traitor” or as we have seen St. John do, in the quote above,
“Judas, who betrayed Him.” The thought that one of their number
could stoop to such a villainous act inflicts them with a personal
shame.
Any way you look at
it, the
story of the betrayal shows new evil each
time you read it. Going out from the supper table, Judas had
hastened to the priests and was quickly on his way with a band of
soldiers. He probably hurried back to the upper room, where he
had left Jesus: not finding Him there, he knew well with the Master had
gone, and hastened to the sacred place of prayer – Gethsemani – where
Jesus had often retired for prayer.
Then in the manner
in which
he left the officers know which of the
company was Jesus shows the deepest blackness of all. Under the
guise of close friendship – Judas kissed Christ – with feigned warmth
and affection.
It would be salutary
for each
of us to remember always how the treason
in the heart of Judas grew. In the beginning, it was greed and
money, then followed theft and falseness of life, ending at last, in
the blackest crime this world has ever seen. The fact that such a
fall as that of Judas began with small infidelities which grew and grew
into a heinous crime should teach us the danger of committing venial
sins. The Holy Ghost warns us that “he that contemneth little
things, shall fall by little and little” (Eccles. 19:1).
A picture in the
royal
gallery of Brussels represents Judas wandering
about in the night after the betrayal. He comes by chance upon
the workmen who have been making the cross upon which Christ shall be
crucified the next day. A fire nearby throws its full light on
the faces of the workmen, who are sleeping peacefully, while resting
from their labors. Judas’ face is somewhat in the shade, but it
is wonderfully expressive of awful remorse and agony as he catches
sight of the cross and the tools used to make it – the cross which his
treachery made possible. Judas did not fall into one great sin,
he began with lesser sins, and they paved the way to his great disaster.
St. John Chrysostom said this
of venial sins: ”I maintain that the
small sins require to be avoided with more care then the more grievous
ones, for the grievous ones of their very nature stir up our attention
against them; whereas, the lesser sins from the fact of their being
insignificant in comparison, are not noticed.” The devil is so
cunning. He knows he could not induce a virtuous person to fall
onto great sin because of the horror it inspires. What does he
do? He proposes a venial offense: now one, now another
until he gets the soul into an evil habit, for he knows the end
result. Satan knows Scripture too, and can prove it from what he
has been able to accomplish by making persons desire at first, venially
sinful things. Scripture says: “He that is unjust in that which
is little will be unjust in that which is great” (Eccles. 19:1).
Pray earnestly today
for
grace to avoid venial sins. Examine your
conscience daily on your commission of venial sins and resolve to do
your earnest to avoid them.
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