Last year. this time, in the Gardens Reflections on Good Friday, I had cited two verses from the Gospel of St John:

“they went to a place which was called Gethsemane” (Mk 14:32), “across the Kidron valley, where there was a garden”(John 18:1)

“In the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid” (John 19:41)

In his book “Jesus of Nazareth”, Pope Benedict reflected that St John’s use of the word “garden” is an unmistakable reference to the story of Paradise and the Fall. That story is being resumed here (in the account of of the agony of Jesus in Gethsemane). It is in the “garden” that Jesus is betrayed, but the garden is also the place of the Resurrection. It was in the garden that Jesus fully accepted the Father’s will, made it his own, and thus changed the course of history.

The reflections on Jesus prayer in the garden at Gethsemane, and His inner struggles in doing God’s divine will, reconciled with His own human will, makes for fascinating reading, as historical theologians grappled and ultimately agreed with the idea that Jesus’ reconciliation between ‘the two wills from opposition to union is accomplished through the sacrifice of obedience’ (Christopher Schoñborn, God’s Human Face: The Christ-Icon, 1994).

These words may sound terribly scholarly, but the underlying faith reflections is that Jesus agonized like we do, fully human, and fought in His fear and willingness, as we would, even as He awaited the fulfillment of His destiny, to cooperate with God’s will, and to save the world and to bestow this ultimate act of love.

In this Reflection, a year hence, a day past, beyond His passion and death, we await in silence for His triumph.

(Lumix G85; M.Zuiko 75-300)(excerpted from Gethsemane, pp 149; 161. Jesus of Nazareth: Part Two Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection. Ignatius Press 2011)