March 26
Our Lord took upon himself our infirmity
etermined to
give his disciples an example they could imitate, our Lord himself became
one with them by assuming a human soul like theirs. This enabled him to
enter into their sentiments and thus to sow the seeds of comfort in their
hearts. He acquainted himself with their fear in order that the knowledge
of his resemblance to themselves might restrain them from boasting of their
readiness to meet death while it was still far off. Fearless though he
was, our Lord actually experienced fear and prayed to be delivered from
suffering, even though he knew his prayer could not be granted. Surely
then before temptation assailed them his disciples should have prayed all
the more earnestly to be saved from failing the test!
We may also tell ourselves that we too were in our Lord's mind as he
prayed. In time of temptation our minds become confused and our imagination
runs riot. By persevering in prayer Jesus was showing us how much we ourselves
need to pray if we are to escape the wiles and snares of the devil. It
is only by sustained prayer that we gain control of our distracted thoughts.
From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from
Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
HTML text prepared by David P. Steelman
