Pope: We must learn to trust in Providence, God’s will
General audience, Benedict XVI speaks of Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane. In prayer there is the relationship of tenderness, affection and trust that binds Jesus to the Father, the knowledge of the omnipotence of the Father, full adherence to the will of the Father.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "We must learn to trust divine Providence more," to renew our "Thy will be done" as in Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane, the Garden of Olives. The need to conform ourselves to the will of God was illustrated today by Benedict XVI to eight thousand people who attended the general audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican.
That night, the "prayer of Jesus is particularly significant." Jesus goes to the Mount of Olives after the Last Supper, while he is praying with his disciples. In Mark's account, "the path to Gethsemane is full of expressions by Jesus that impress upon us his impending fate of death and announce the imminent dispersal of the disciples."
On the Mount of Olives, as at other times, Jesus prepares for personal prayer. "But this time something new happens: He does not seem to want to be alone," he asks Peter, James and John "to be close to him." On that night too Jesus will pray to the Father alone, "because his relationship with Him is totally unique and singular: the relationship of the only begotten Son." Jesus, however, "wants at least three disciples to stay not too far away, in a closer relationship with Him. It is a spatial proximity, a request for solidarity as he feels death approaching, but it is primarily a closeness in prayer, to express in some way, harmony with Him, in the moment in which he prepares to fulfill the will of the Father and it is an invitation to every disciple to follow the path of the Cross. "
In the words addressed to the three, Jesus, once again, expresses himself in the language of the Psalms, this time, Psalm 43: "My soul is sorrowful." They are words that "reveal how he feels fear and anxiety in that hour, how he experiences the final profound solitude as God's plan is being implemented. And this fear and anguish of Jesus is sums up all the horror of man before his own death, the certainty of its relentlessness and the perception of the weight of the evil that touches our lives. "
Later, Jesus addresses the Father, in prayer, "he asks the Father that if possible, the hour might pass from him. It is not just the fear and anguish of man before death, but the devastation of the Son of God who sees the terrible mass of evil that he will have to take upon himself to overcome it, to deprive it of power. "
"We, too, in prayer - said the Pope - must be able to bring our labors before God, the suffering of certain situations, certain days, the daily commitment to follow him, to be Christians and even the weight of the evil we see in us and around us, so He may give us hope, help us feel His proximity, give us a little 'light on life's journey. "
In the continuation of Jesus' prayer "Abba! Father! everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will", Benedict XVI highlighted the" three revealing passages". "At the beginning we have the doubling of the word with which Jesus speaks to God: 'Abba! Father! ', Which in Aramaic is the one used by the child to speak to the father and therefore expresses the relationship of Jesus with God the Father, a relationship of tenderness, affection, trust and abandonment. " In the second "passage" is the awareness of the omnipotence of the Father, 'everything is possible for you', that introduces a requirement that, once again, is the drama of the human will of Jesus before his death and evil: 'Take this cup from me.' But there is the third expression of the prayer of Jesus and it is the decisive one, in which the human will fully adheres to divine will. In fact, Jesus concludes by saying firmly, “Yet not what I will, but what you will.' "
Adam and Eve, continued the Pope, believed that freedom was in their "no" to God, "Jesus tells us that only by conforming his will to the divine, the human being comes to its true height, becoming "divine "; only by coming out of themselves, only in their "yes" to God, is the desire of Adam, of all of us, fulfilled; to be completely free. This is what Jesus did in Gethsemane: transferring human will to the will of God true man was born, and we are redeemed. "
"Let us ask the Lord – concluded the Pope - to be able to watch with Him in prayer, to follow the will of God every day even if it means the Cross, to live ever greater intimacy with the Lord, to bring to this earth a little of God’s heaven”.
That night, the "prayer of Jesus is particularly significant." Jesus goes to the Mount of Olives after the Last Supper, while he is praying with his disciples. In Mark's account, "the path to Gethsemane is full of expressions by Jesus that impress upon us his impending fate of death and announce the imminent dispersal of the disciples."
On the Mount of Olives, as at other times, Jesus prepares for personal prayer. "But this time something new happens: He does not seem to want to be alone," he asks Peter, James and John "to be close to him." On that night too Jesus will pray to the Father alone, "because his relationship with Him is totally unique and singular: the relationship of the only begotten Son." Jesus, however, "wants at least three disciples to stay not too far away, in a closer relationship with Him. It is a spatial proximity, a request for solidarity as he feels death approaching, but it is primarily a closeness in prayer, to express in some way, harmony with Him, in the moment in which he prepares to fulfill the will of the Father and it is an invitation to every disciple to follow the path of the Cross. "
In the words addressed to the three, Jesus, once again, expresses himself in the language of the Psalms, this time, Psalm 43: "My soul is sorrowful." They are words that "reveal how he feels fear and anxiety in that hour, how he experiences the final profound solitude as God's plan is being implemented. And this fear and anguish of Jesus is sums up all the horror of man before his own death, the certainty of its relentlessness and the perception of the weight of the evil that touches our lives. "
Later, Jesus addresses the Father, in prayer, "he asks the Father that if possible, the hour might pass from him. It is not just the fear and anguish of man before death, but the devastation of the Son of God who sees the terrible mass of evil that he will have to take upon himself to overcome it, to deprive it of power. "
"We, too, in prayer - said the Pope - must be able to bring our labors before God, the suffering of certain situations, certain days, the daily commitment to follow him, to be Christians and even the weight of the evil we see in us and around us, so He may give us hope, help us feel His proximity, give us a little 'light on life's journey. "
In the continuation of Jesus' prayer "Abba! Father! everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will", Benedict XVI highlighted the" three revealing passages". "At the beginning we have the doubling of the word with which Jesus speaks to God: 'Abba! Father! ', Which in Aramaic is the one used by the child to speak to the father and therefore expresses the relationship of Jesus with God the Father, a relationship of tenderness, affection, trust and abandonment. " In the second "passage" is the awareness of the omnipotence of the Father, 'everything is possible for you', that introduces a requirement that, once again, is the drama of the human will of Jesus before his death and evil: 'Take this cup from me.' But there is the third expression of the prayer of Jesus and it is the decisive one, in which the human will fully adheres to divine will. In fact, Jesus concludes by saying firmly, “Yet not what I will, but what you will.' "
Adam and Eve, continued the Pope, believed that freedom was in their "no" to God, "Jesus tells us that only by conforming his will to the divine, the human being comes to its true height, becoming "divine "; only by coming out of themselves, only in their "yes" to God, is the desire of Adam, of all of us, fulfilled; to be completely free. This is what Jesus did in Gethsemane: transferring human will to the will of God true man was born, and we are redeemed. "
"Let us ask the Lord – concluded the Pope - to be able to watch with Him in prayer, to follow the will of God every day even if it means the Cross, to live ever greater intimacy with the Lord, to bring to this earth a little of God’s heaven”.
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