Day 2
Gethsemane
The prayer that almost wasn't answered
17th century
Grace to ask for
Lord, teach me to pray "Thy will be done" and mean it.
""Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.""
Luke 22:42
Composition of Place
Enter the garden in the dark. The disciples are asleep. Jesus is alone, kneeling, sweat falling like blood. This is where He prays what he asks his disciples to pray: "Thy will be done."
Points for Meditation
He was afraid
The Gospels are explicit: Jesus was "deeply distressed and troubled." He was "overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death." This is not weakness — it is the full reality of the human nature He took on. He who is afraid is not less courageous than he who feels nothing. The courage is in continuing despite the fear.
"Let this cup pass"
He asked for another way. "Father, if you are willing..." — the conditional matters. He was not pretending to have a preference. He genuinely did not want to suffer. And yet: "not my will, but yours." This is the prayer of the whole Exercises compressed into a single sentence. It is the prayer God always answers — though not always with the answer we expect.
No one stayed awake with him
Three times he came back to find them sleeping. "Could you not watch with me one hour?" This is not rhetorical — it is the loneliness of Gethsemane. The Exercises are, among other things, an answer to this request. To stay awake with him. To accompany him, in prayer, through the night.
Colloquy
Stay in the garden. Do not leave. Ask for the grace to pray the prayer of Gethsemane not as a formality — "thy will be done, amen" — but as the genuine surrender of your preference to His wisdom. Tell Him honestly what you are afraid of. Then stay.
Remain in silence for a few minutes.
Do not rush to the next exercise.