In a work
originally written in Portuguese in 1753, Catholic priest and theologian F.
Thomas wrote the following about the sufferings of Christ in Gethsemane (it is
interesting to compare and contrast such with that of Latter-day Saint
expositions thereof):
For having washed his disciples’ feet,
instituted in their presence the sacrament of his body and blood, and made them
a very moving and sublime discourse, he entered with them into the garden of
Gethsemani. Then seeing them dejected, he exhorted them to have recourse to
prayer, as to the most efficacious remedy against sadness, and retired
afterwards a little further with three of his apostles, Peter, James, and John;
having represented to himself in a most lively manner every thing he was to
suffer, the pains, torments, ignominies,
the triumph of his enemies, the contempt of his person, wisdom, and
miracles, the new kinds of reproach and cruelties which were prepared for him,
he fell into such a dejection, as would have deprived him of life, had it not
been miraculously preserved: he testified this himself, saying; my soul is sorrowful even unto death.
(Matt. xxvi. 38.) he returned to his disciples, in order to find with them some
comfort in this extremity; but they themselves were so dejected by his sadness,
who was wont to fortify them in their troubles, that our Saviour returned to
prayer, without receiving any consolation from them; and said to his Father, in
the excess of his grief: O my Father! if it
is possible let this chalice pass from me. Nevertheless not as I will, but as
thou wilt. (39).
He found his Father inexorable, and his
sorrow augmented to such a degree, that it more resembled the agony of a dying
man, than the ordinary sorrow of a man that suffers; but notwithstanding his
pain, he continued his prayer; which made the Evangelist say, that being in an agony he prayed the longer.
(Luke xxii. 43) The combat which was then maintained between the inferior and
superior part, occasioned him such an abundant sweat of blood, that after
bathing his garments, it also moistened the ground where he prayed.
Then an angel descended from heaven to
comfort him; not that he wanted the necessary power for opposing the weakness
of nature; but in order to teach all those who suffer, that their consolation
and strength must come from heaven. So the angel, who was not ignorant who that
afflicted person was, did not lose time in proposing different motives of consolation
to him; but only besought him, in the name of heaven and earth, and of all
sinners, to apply to their evils, out of his infinite love, that sovereign
remedy which they could not receive but from him alone; and to prefer to the
reproaches and torments of one day, the eternal glory which he was to obtain
thereby: for, as the apostle says, having
joy set before him, he endured the
cross, despising shame. (Heb. xii. 2)
The sinner, for whose love our Saviour
vouchsafed to undergo so great a conflict, ought here to beg of him the
interior spirit, and the divine dispositions, which made him then suffer by a
voluntary submission, without any human comfort, which appeared so terrible to
nature. No words can express it; no understanding is capable of comprehending
it, without a particular gift of the spirit of God.
Thus it is that he who supports others in
affliction abandons himself thereto; that the comforter of all men falls into
desolation; that the joy of heaven and earth was overwhelmed with grief; and
that the Son of God, in order to gain our hearts, was pleased to take our infirmities
upon himself.
Two things occasioned him this mortal sorrow,
the first was, the greatness and infinite multitude of the sins of the world,
which were all in particular present to his mind, with a clear view of the
divine majesty offended by so many crimes, and of the ruin of souls destined to
eternal punishments. The second was, the great number of those to whom his
death would be unprofitable. As he was comforted on one hand, by the certainty
of the advantages he was to reap from his passion; he was afflicted on the
other, in thinking how few men would receive the benefit from that remedy,
which his love had prepared for all; and he found no consolation therein, but
in submitting to the immutable decrees of his Father, who would have him suffer
those very persons that would not profit by his sufferings. (F. Thomas, The Sufferings of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
Volume II [Dublin: C.M. Warren, 1843], 31-33)