Lourdes Rosary Meditations #6
The Agony in the Garden
An angel, illuminated by gold light and holding a saving chalice, came to strengthen Him, while Judas, surrounded by impending clouds and holding treacherous blood money, came to betray Him. These two figures stand in immortalized opposition above the archway. Meanwhile, His Sacred Heart, already “sorrowful unto death,” continues to burn with love both for the angel and for Judas. Had only Judas known that love instead of turning against it that dark night!
In the scene itself, Peter, James, and John, unknowing or uncaring about what is happening to their Lord, fall asleep three times. The city of Jerusalem in the distance knows not that its redemption is now at hand. So much ignorance, but no bliss is to be felt this night.
Jesus, for His part, is wide awake, keeping the vigil He had expected of His disciples. They slept and later sinned. He prayed and remained faithful. What was His prayer? That the chalice before Him—the chalice of suffering and death—would pass Him by, but only if the Father wanted. Much like the last mosaic, He is still, always, and only about His Father’s business. Much too like the Nativity mosaic, He finds Himself in a cave, but this time His appearance is far from regal. We see before us the very depths of His humanity, weak in its finitude, on full display.
So intense was His prayer and agony that, as we read in the archway, “His sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground.” The great deluge of blood in the Old Testament amounted to nothing—to the forgiveness of not even one sin. Yet, this Precious Blood of the God-Man was enough to purify all peoples of all times. It did what all the slaughtered animals of old could never do, and wrought the redemption of all mankind. With this in mind, Saint Thomas Aquinas would later call upon Jesus in his Adoro Te Devote by saying: “O loving Pelican! O Jesu, Lord! Unclean I am, but cleanse me in Thy Blood; Of which a single drop, for sinners spilt, is ransom for a world's entire guilt.”
No scourge had rent His Flesh, no nail pierced His hands, yet here in this Garden, He already pours out His Blood for the salvation of the world. This moment would have been enough to set us free and reconcile us with the Father. It would have sufficed to accomplish His mission. Alas, so much more is to come. The Blood has only begun to flow.