A synthesis of the commentary of Cornelius à Lapide' (1567 - 1637) on the Passion of Our Lord from St. Matthew's Gospel compiled by a priest and friend of Rorate Caeli.
GETHSEMANE part 2
Ver. 38. Then saith He unto them, My soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch
with Me. I am as sorrowful from the lively apprehension of My sufferings
and death, as if I were now dying; I seem to be lifeless with sorrow and dread.
My pain well-nigh takes away My life and breath. It is not My flesh, but My
soul, which is so very sad, for sorrow penetrates the inmost parts of My soul,
and cuts it in sunder as a sword. “The waters have come in even to My soul,”
Ps. lxix. 1. I am but the smallest point removed from death, so that the
slightest addition to My sorrow would crush Me, and take away My life. Consider
with what feeling of sorrow and love Christ spake these words,—His pathos, His
look, His voice, His countenance,—Tarry ye here. Wait
and behold Me here, deeply sorrowing and praying in the agony of death, both as
witnesses of My sorrow, and to learn from Me in every tribulation to betake
yourselves to prayer; so that thus watching ye may be some solace to Me in My
affliction. But it is not so; for sorrow hath overwhelmed you, and forces you
to sleep. Whence Christ complains (Ps. lxix. 21), “I waited for some to have
pity on Me, but there was no man, neither found I any to comfort Me.”
Christ from the vehemence of His love wished to pass through His
unmitigated and wondrous Passion without any consolation or consoler. He wished
to drain the chalice of gall and bitterness unmixed with the sweetness of
honey, both in order that His redemption should be plenteous, and for an
example of heroic virtue. For Christ manifested in His Passion the most perfect
acts of heroic virtue. And He Himself was therein a prodigy of humanity; for
though “He was in the form of God . . . He became obedient as far as unto
death, even the death of the Cross,” Phil. ii. 8. He was also therein a prodigy
of patience, fortitude, and of charity; for “greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John xv. 13). But Christ
laid down His for His enemies (Rom. v. 8).
Ver. 39. And He went a little farther and fell on His
face. For a few steps, that He might pray in secret, and yet be seen
and heard by them. By this prostration He manifested His extreme suffering,
gave a striking example of humility, and the highest reverence to God the
Father. Again, to set forth the heavy burden of our sins, which He had taken
upon Him, and present Himself to the Father in our stead as though guilty and
penitent, and submit Himself entirely to chastisement, I surrender Myself, He
says, to Thee, 0 Father, as guilty, in the place of men. I give up Myself
entirely to Thee, and present to Thee the punishment due to them. I offer My
back to the scourger, My head to the crown of thorns, My hands and feet to the
nails, and My entire body to the cross. Wound and crucify Me, that man may be
spared and received back into Thy favour.
And prayed, saying. For as man He in a true and proper
sense prayed to the Father, yea, even to Himself as God. On the spot where He
prayed a church was erected, and the marks of His footsteps were said by
Baronius to be still there.
Behold, And See If There Be Any Sorrow Like Unto His Sorrow
0 My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me. Absolutely this was possible, but it was impossible according to God’s
decree that man was to be redeemed by Christ’s death. Christ knew this, and
therefore did not wish for it absolutely, and asks for nothing contrary to His
own and the Father’s will. But He merely expresses His natural shrinking from
death, His ineffectual and conditionated will, and yet freely submitted Himself
to the contrary will of God, that He should die.…
3. The full and adequate meaning is, that this cup of suffering should
pass away, even though Thou hast decreed that I should drink it to the dregs;
and thus (as Origen says) it should pass away from Himself, and the whole race
of mankind….
Symbolically: S. Hilary says, “Christ took all our
infirmities and nailed them to the Cross, and therefore that cup could not pass
away from Him without His drinking it, for we cannot suffer except through His
Passion.” May that cup, 0 Father, pass over to My own followers, that when
enduring My suffering they may experience also through My gift My strength and
power to endure….
Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt. Here it is plain, as against the Monothelites, that there are two wills
in Christ: not only the Divine, to supply the place of the human will, as they
said, but the will He had as man, by which He obtained our redemption. The
Sixth Synod (Acts 4 and 10) proves that there were in Him two wills, and that
the human was by obedience subject to the Divine; and this on the authority of
SS. Athanasius, Augustine, Ambrose, and Leo. Nay, rather, though the human will
was in itself one, yet in its power and action it was twofold, the one natural,
with which it shrank from death; the other rational and free, with which He
subjected Himself to the will of God.….
Christ here teaches us, as a moral duty, that our sole remedy in affliction is submission to the
Divine will, and that in every
temptation we must betake ourselves to the aid of God, who alone can free us
from them or strengthen us under them if we submit ourselves humbly,
reverently, and lovingly to His will. “This voice of the Head,” says S. Leo,
“is the salvation of the whole body; It taught the faithful, it inspired
confessors, it crowned the martyrs. For who could overcome the hatred of the
world, the whirlwinds of temptations, the terrors of persecution, had not
Christ in all and for all said in submission to His Father, Thy will be done?”
Ver. 40. And He cometh to His disciples and findeth them asleep,
and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with Me one hour? To
gain some consolation, little though it were, and also as having care for His
people; thus teaching bishops and pastors to do the like, and to break off
prayer in order to visit them. They were sleeping for sorrow, and He speaks to
Peter as the head of the rest, and as having so boldly professed his allegiance
to Christ.
But observe how gently and tenderly He reproves them. He does not
reproach them with their grand promises; but He merely says, “Could ye not?” Ye
wished indeed to watch, but I attribute your sleep not to your will, but to
your weakness: arouse yourselves, overcome your infirmity, shake off sleep.…
Ver. 41. Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. Of
denying and forsaking Me for fear of the Jews. If my dangers move you not, may
your own do so. There hangs over you the great temptation of denying Me; watch
and pray to overcome it. “The more spiritual a man is,” says Origen, “the more
anxious should he be lest his great goodness should have a great fall.”
Watchfulness and prayer are the great means of foreseeing and overcoming the
arts of devils and men.!!!!
Enter into temptation. Be not ensnared, as
birds in a net and fishes with a hook. Not to be tempted is often not in our
own power, nor is it God’s will for us. He wills we should be tempted, to try
our faith, to increase our virtue, and to crown our deserts. But we must not enter
into temptation, so that it should occupy, possess, and rule over us. So
Theophylact and S. Jerome.
The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. I know your readiness in spirit, but your weakness in the flesh. By
the flesh is meant our natural feelings, which shrink from suffering and death.
Pray, therefore, that your weak flesh may not enfeeble your spirit and compel
it to deny Me; but may God by His grace so strengthen both your spirit and your
flesh, that ye may not only be ready, but strong to overcome all adversities,
so that for My sake ye may eagerly wish for death, and bravely endure it. ….
Ver. 42. He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying,
0 My Father, if this cup may not pass away unless 1 drink it, Thy will be
done. S. Mark says that He used the same words as before. But S.
Matthew omitted the first part of the prayer as without efficacy or meaning,
and in order to insist on the latter part in which the whole force of the
passage consists, and set it forth for our imitation. For Christ absolutely
wished and prayed to drink the cup of His Passion, which was decreed and
destined for Him by the will of God. For He plainly and expressly asked that
the will of God might be fulfilled in Him in and through all things.
Ver. 43. And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes
were heavy. With sorrow and watching, and afterwards with sleep.
“For,” says S. Chrysostom, “it was a wild night,” adding that “Christ did not
reprove them, since their weakness was great.”
Ver. 44. And He left them, and went away again, and prayed the
third time, using the same words. 1st To show the intensity of His
sorrow; for, as S. Luke says, He sweated blood, and an angel comforted Him. But
this was only when He prayed the third time, and not the first and second time,
as Jansen maintains. 2nd To teach us that if God hears us not in our first
prayer, we should pray more frequently and fervently, till He hears us, and we
obtain our request. Perseverance crowns the work, in prayer especially. And if
Christ was not heard in His first and second prayer, what wonder if we are not
heard at once? Let us persevere, and we shall gain the fruit of our prayer,
strengthening, calming of sorrow, and power of mind to withstand and overcome
our trials.
Symbolically 1.Remigius says, “He
prays thrice for the Apostles, and especially for Peter, who was about to deny
Him thrice.” …
