Meditation for March 6, He Prayed the Longer

When my prayer is not consoling I shorten it, reduce it, curtail it.

I must imitate Jesus at Gethsemane.

The actual meeting with the demands of His Father is certainly terrible, not that He had not accepted them from all eternity, but because His human sensibility is frightened in the face of them. What an odious race these human beings for whom He will sacri­fice Himself tomorrow! The majority of them will never under­stand, but among those who will understand, how many will have the courage to follow the Master to the Cross, to give love for love, to participate in the salvation of the world?

Among the best, those who have been the object of special predi­lection, of an exalted vocation, how many failures! There, close by, are the eleven asleep. As for the twelfth. . . alas!

Is Judas not now approaching in the darkness to betray Me, to kiss Me, to deliver Me up? As though I could not unmask him by My light. But the time is come! The work of death must be accomplished.

And Peter, tomorrow.... He loves Me, this poor, brave Peter, but how weak he is, and the cock will not crow three times before he has denied Me three times.

And Judas, the wretched suicide!

And the world, the poor world a prey to sin, and it will remain in its clutches all through the ages.... I will have sought in vain for faithful souls to love me. I shall find some, but oh! so few!

Father, Father!... What a terrible prayer!

And Jesus perseveres. He does not run away. He stays, He insists, and the more the horizon darkens, the more He prays.

In my disconsolate prayers, I shall think of another disconsolate prayer, that of my good Master in the garden, and I shall perse­vere. If possible, I shall pray more, and like Jesus, I shall pray the longer.
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)