VI. The Agony in the Garden - Presentiments of Mary

When Mary presented Her Child in the temple She heard a sad and mournful prophecy. It was the word of the holy old man Simeon: "A sword shall pierce thy heart." (Luke 2) The prophecy is already fulfilled. Mary suffered bitter anguish when She carried Her Child to a foreign land to escape the persecution of Herod; again when sorrowing She sought Him after She had lost Him; again when during His public life She saw Him living on the bread of charity and having no place to lay His head. She suffered keenly when the prophecies of the Saviour announcing His Passion and cruel death recalled to Her mind the oracles She had read in the Temple. But now the day of Her greatest sorrow is come.

Jesus rises from the supper-table. She well knows whither He is going, and, although She is not near the scene of His agony, She receives into Her heart its mysterious rebounds. Whilst the chosen disciples sleep and forget their Master, Mary watches and prays. Her maternal presentiment represents to Her in all its horror the agony in the garden. Like Jesus She is seized with a mortal languor, a strange sadness and fear. With Him She cries out, "My soul is sorrowful even unto death," at the same time prostrating Herself upon the earth. Like Him She cries out to the Father in Heaven, "O my Father! let this chalice pass from me." Am I not mistaken? Do I not rather hear Her say, "Give this chalice to me with all its dolors, but spare my beloved Child"? She is His Mother, more tender and more loving than any other mother. "O Father of my Well-beloved!" She would say, "why strike an innocent victim? Even better than I you know this sweet Lamb. In heaven He is the splendor of your substance, the image of your glory; and I, from the moment in which I first felt the signs of maternity until this sad hour, have always seen Him full of grace and of wisdom and of goodness. He was submissive to your sacred laws - His food was" to do your will. He went about doing good. Take pity, oh, take pity on Him now! Strike sinners, whose likeness He has assumed; strike me, His unworthy Mother, but lift your chastising hand from Him. Do not subject me to bitter grief for having pronounced His death-warrant when to the glorious promises made I said: 'Be it done unto me according to Thy word.' O Father! take this chalice from His lips."

Is it that God will not allow Himself to be moved by the touching appeal of a mother? Ah! no. It is that His inexorable and infinite justice must be satisfied. Divinely enlightened by grace, Mary clearly sees what is exacted of Him; She knows that the salvation of mankind depends upon the merciful substitution of the innocent for the guilty. With Jesus She submits to the will of Her Heavenly Father; with Jesus She is in agony; with Jesus She would die if She had not been, like Him, sustained by a power from on high. O sorrowful Mother! not content with having taken part in the doleful conflict which the Child of your womb sustained in the Garden of Olives, you also wish to engage in the conflicts of your children by adoption. These combats are renewed every day - yes, every instant - there are so many enemies within us and around us, and we are assailed so often by the contradictions, infirmities, and miseries of this earthly life. And sometimes the contest rages in such a way that we, too, feel a mortal sadness, and our souls are so burdened with the weariness of battle and so cast down by fear that they are almost ready to fall from discouragement into despair. Jesus has well commanded us "to watch and pray that we enter not into temptation; for the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." But are we stronger than the apostles to resist the unhappy sleep which must assure the triumph of temptation? Alas! too often we have had experience of our weakness. We have need of feeling the presence and of hearing the voice of our Mother. Health of the weak! Refuge of sinners! Comforter of the afflicted! Help of Christians! watch and pray for us that we may come forth victorious from the combats of this life - victorious by the deep resolve never to offend God whatever else may happen, victorious by patience and resignation to the will of God in all our misfortunes.