1. In the previous chapter we left Our Lord Jesus Christ at the moment He and the eleven Apostles reached the Garden of Olives. We now teach that after the Master had prayed briefly before the tomb of His virginal Father, Most Holy Joseph, with the Eleven He entered the Garden of Olives, straightaway going into a grotto within the Garden enclosure a few steps from the entrance, known today as the Grotto of the Arrest. A distance of some 25 metres separates the latter from Saint Joseph’s tomb, known today as the sepulchre of the Virgin. Both places were greatly preferred for prayer and recollection by the Master in His frequent visits to Mount Olivet during His Public Life, although He was also often wont to pray in the open air.

2. In conformity with our interpretation of the Gospel, it was when inside the Grotto that Jesus said to eight of His Apostles, according to Saint Matthew: «Stay here, while I go yonder and pray» (Matt. XXVI, 36b); Saint Mark refers to this in like terms (Mark XIV, 32b). Although neither Evangelist records it, in these words of the Master is perceived a pressing exhortation to the eight to remain there in continual prayer and watchfulness in the face of the moral harm that could befall them. For His enemies would soon come to seize Him and it was well that they be strengthened in spirit and free from drowsiness so as not to be caught off guard by temptation. As we see and interpret in Saint Matthew (XXVI, 37a) and in Saint Mark (XIV, 33a), Jesus took with Him Peter, James and his brother John. While on the way to another part of the Garden He allowed them to glimpse the immense bitterness overwhelming His Most Divine Soul, caused by moral distress never before felt so strongly. This the first two Evangelists, duly harmonized, express thus: «He began to grow sorrowful and to be distressed...to grow fearful and to shrink back» (Matt. XXVI, 37b; Mark XIV, 33b). In other words, beholding His Most Sorrowful Passion and Death Jesus felt, really and truly, in the passible state of His Most Sacred Humanity, most profound sadness and distress, unspeakable fear and inability to continue on. He revealed it thus to His three Apostles for them better to esteem how much it cost Him to consummate the Work of Reparation and Redemption, which He desired with unimaginable vehemence. This piteous and limited passible human condition which Our Lord Jesus Christ was to display in varying degrees during His most sorrowful Passion, as we shall see, was due to the fact that, among other objectives, in order to suffer more, at some moments He suspended part of the infused knowledge in the passible state of His Most Divine Soul. This He already began to experience in the Garden of Olives during His three hours of Agony. It is well to stress again that although Our Lord Jesus Christ, with His most bloody Passion and ignominious Crucifixion, suffered in the passible state of His Body and Soul, at the same time He fully rejoiced in the glorious state of both elements of His Human Nature.

3. Saint Luke, according to our interpretation, gives us the continuation of the Gospel narrative: «And when He was come to the place...» (Luke XXII, 40a), here referring to the place in the Garden of Olives where Jesus lingered with His three Apostles, and where they would remain whilst He prayed apart. But before leaving them Jesus demonstrated anew and now with greater intensity His indescribable anguish saying, as the first two Evangelists recount in like terms (Matt. XXVI, 38a; Mark XIV, 34a), and of whose texts we here cite Saint Matthew’s: «My Soul is sorrowful even unto death» (Matt. XXVI, 38a). These words disclose the magnitude of the inconceivable affliction then pitilessly harrowing the Most Sacred Humanity of Christ, enough to cause His death had it been the moment determined by the Father. We understand that the fundamental reason He shared His sufferings with the three predilect Apostles was that they, previously witnesses to His Transfiguration on Thabor, should now be so to the agonizing prelude to His Passion, and thus become strengthened in the faith that Jesus, as well as true God was also true Man, and as such sentient and passible by His own will; and that it serve them later to teach to the Church, that thereby this irrefutable doctrine be evident in Her. But Jesus also sought, in the company of His three Apostles, that in intimacy they might better esteem His terrible sufferings and thus, more at one with Him in His distress, and compassionate towards Him, console Him with fitting reparation and, moreover, benefit spiritually. Although Our Divine Saviour expressed His desire to withdraw from them to pray apart, as Saint Matthew (XXVI, 38b) and Saint Mark (XIV, 34b) relate when they say: «Stay you here», He also desired that from the place where they remained they keep Him company watching with Him, as we see in those Gospel texts, and in this way become stronger in spirit, as is gathered from Saint Luke: «Pray, lest you fall in temptation» (Luke XXII, 40).

4. The first three Evangelists narrate the Prayer and Agony of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Gethsemani, with which we teach His most sorrowful Passion officially began. The place in the Garden where Jesus prostrated Himself in prayer before the Father was not far removed from where Peter, James and John were to be found, as is seen in Saint Matthew who says: «And going a little further, He fell upon His Face, praying» (Matt. XXVI, 39). Saint Mark relates: «And when He was gone forward a little, He fell prostrate to the ground» (Mark XIV, 35), and Saint Luke: «And He was withdrawn away from them a stone’s cast. And kneeling down, He prayed» (Luke XXII, 41). We teach that the exact spot of Jesus’ Prayer and Agony is the so-called Rock of the Agony, protected by barbed wrought-iron railings, situated within the sanctuary and before the high altar of the Basilica of Gethsemani, also called of the Nations. We make clear that at the period Jesus prayed the Rock was in the open air.

5. Continuing our examination of the sacred texts of the first three Evangelists, who narrate Jesus’ Prayer and Agony in the Garden of Gethsemani, firstly we teach that, as is gathered from them, this most sorrowful episode lasted three hours, including the first two visits the Master made to where His three Apostles were to exhort them anew to pray. And moreover, we clarify that the Master commenced His prayer at 12 o’clock midnight at the start of Good Friday the 25th of March of the year 34, and ended it at 3 o’clock in the morning. We also make clear that when Saint Matthew says that Jesus «fell upon His Face, praying» (Matt. XXVI, 39), Saint Mark that «He fell prostrate to the ground: and He prayed» (Mark XIV, 35) and Saint Luke «And kneeling down, He prayed» (Luke XXII, 41), with which the three complement one another, it must be understood that Jesus always remained kneeling whilst He prayed in each of the three hours; and that only when He cried out to the Father to let the Chalice pass from Him, which was once in each hour, did He prostrate with His Face to the ground.

6. Forthwith we harmonize and chronologically place the alluded Gospel texts in the hour that corresponds to each, within the three hours that the Prayer and Agony in Gethsemani lasted, although in the third this Agony reached its greatest intensity with the sweat of blood:

Saint Matthew refers to the first hour when he says: «He fell upon His Face, praying and saying: -My Father, if it be possible, let this Chalice pass from Me. Nevertheless, not as I will but as Thou wilt. And He cometh to His disciples and findeth them asleep. And He saith to Peter: What? Could you not watch one hour with Me? Watch and pray that you do not fall in temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak» (Matt. XXVI, 39-41). Saint Mark expresses it thus: «He fell prostrate to the ground: and He prayed that, if it might be, the hour might pass from Him. And He saith: Abba, Father, all things are possible to Thee: remove this Chalice from Me; but not what I will, but what Thou wilt. And He cometh and findeth them sleeping. And He saith to Peter: Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst thou not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you fall not in temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak» (Mark XIV, 35-38).

The second hour is contained in this text of Saint Matthew: «Again the second time, He went and prayed, saying: My Father, if this Chalice may not pass away, but I must drink it, Thy will be done. And He cometh again and findeth them sleeping: for their eyes were heavy» (Matt. XXVI, 42-43). And in this of Saint Mark: «And going away again, He prayed saying the same words. And when He returned He found them again asleep (for their eyes were heavy): and they knew not what to answer Him» (Mark XIV, 39-40). And Saint Luke contributes the following: «And when He rose up from prayer and was come to the disciples, He found them sleeping for sorrow. And He said to them: Why sleep you? Arise: pray: lest you fall in temptation» (Luke XXII 1, 45-46); for both these verses, though by transposition placed after the apparition to Jesus of the Angel which the same Evangelist narrates, chronologically fit in before.

The third hour is expressed thus by Saint Matthew: «And leaving them, He went again: and He prayed the third time, saying the selfsame words» (Matt. XXVI, 44). And also by Saint Luke who says: «Father, if Thou wilt, remove this Chalice from Me: but yet not My will, but Thine be done. And there appeared to Him an Angel from Heaven, comforting Him. And being in agony, He prayed the longer. And His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground» (Luke XXII, 42-44). We correctly arrange this text of Saint Luke, in which too there is transposition, the result chronologically being: «And being in agony, He prayed the longer. And His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground. Saying: Father, if Thou wilt, remove this Chalice from Me: but yet not My will, but Thine be done. And there appeared to Him an Angel from Heaven, comforting Him».

7. Before pondering on the mystery of Jesus’ Prayer and Agony in the Garden it is well to make the following clarification. During His earthly life, Our Lord Jesus Christ always had before Him each and every one of mankind’s sins, with their different degrees of malice, as likewise each and every one of the sufferings of His Most Sorrowful Passion and Death. He possessed this knowledge: (a) as God, through divine knowledge, since nothing is concealed from the Divinity Whose Infinite Intelligence encompasses all things; (b) as Man, through beatific knowledge, according to the very highest degree of beatific vision He possesses; and also through infused knowledge, according to the very highest degree of that knowledge He possesses. We also know that Christ as wayfarer always enjoyed the beatific vision in all His Soul, while at the same time, in order to suffer, in His Soul He assumed a passible state impeding thereto the passage of that vision. We now teach that besides depriving Himself of the beatific vision in the passible state of His Soul and therefore in that of His Body, Christ also veiled, in that state, the gift of impassibility, not always to the same degree, thus being possible a greater or lesser capacity for suffering, which at the same time was further accentuated when He suspended infused knowledge in the passible state of His Soul, as occurred on some occasions during His Most Sorrowful Passion. Hence Our Lord Jesus Christ, having Calvary ever present throughout His life, experienced moments when this most distressing contemplation produced intense suffering in the passible state of His Most Sacred Humanity, as for example in Gethsemani where He veiled His impassibility and infused knowledge in suchwise as to bring about His Agony.

8. The consideration, in the light of the teaching of His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII, of the following doctrines - first of all of the reparatory mission of Our Lord Jesus Christ - will help us as well greatly to understand not only the most sorrowful Offertory of Gethsemani, but also the whole of the mystery of Calvary.

(a) Regarding reparation for mortal sins. Since salvation necessarily implies that mortal sins be forgiven during life or at the Particular Judgement, Our Lord Jesus Christ, during His earthly life and most especially on Calvary, made reparation to the Father for all the mortal sins of the saved, suffering in the passible state of His Most Sacred Humanity the pains of loss and of sense corresponding in Hell to those forgiven sins. As for the mortal sins of the damned we must distinguish: Christ made reparation to the Eternal Father for forgiven mortal sins, suffering in the passible state of His Most Sacred Humanity the pains of loss and of sense corresponding to them. Although fitting reparation was thus made to the Father, this reparation only redounds temporarily to the benefit of those forgiven, while they are in grace as wayfarers. But since at Particular Judgement the sins once forgiven of the damned return to their souls when recommitted, owing to the renewal then made of them by the guilty, Christ made reparation to the Father for those recommitted sins through the justice of His Most Divine Soul, producing the searing fire that eternally burns human reprobates. In the same manner He made reparation to the Father for the sins not forgiven in life of those who are damned.

Hence we observe that Christ, on the Cross, knowing who would be saved and who would be damned, there consummated Reparation to the Father for all the mortal sins of the Universe: (1) Those for which He made reparation by suffering the pains of loss and of sense through His infinite mercy; (2) Those for which He made reparation through His infinite justice, given that the reprobates despise His mercy.

(b) Regarding reparation for venial sins, We know that the venial sins of the saved are necessarily forgiven in life or at the Particular Judgement, and that forgiveness is not necessarily accompanied by complete remission of the temporal punishment due to them. But Our Lord Jesus Christ, Saviour of mankind, in the passible state of His Soul and of His Body, did not suffer the pain of loss and the pain of sense corresponding in Purgatory to venial sins, since He made reparation to the Father for the venial sins of the saved in two ways: (1) For those who reach true death without complete remission of their temporal punishment, reparation for their corresponding sins was by virtue of the paternal justice of His Most Divine Soul in producing for each of them the purifying fire of Purgatory that refines them in their condition of Holy Souls; (2) For those who in life or at the Particular Judgement have their temporal punishment remitted, Christ’s reparation was through the power of Indulgences which on Calvary He bestowed on His Spouse the Church; she, in the name of Her Divine Founder, makes graces available for the faithful to gain for the remission of their temporal punishments.

Hence we see that Christ, on the Cross, knowing who would and who would not go to Purgatory, there consummated Reparation to the Father for all the venial sins of the saved. (1) Regarding venial sins whose temporal punishment is remitted neither in life nor at the Particular Judgement, Christ, through His paternal justice, made reparation for them on Calvary having Purgatory and its punishments already prepared. (2) Regarding venial sins whose temporal punishment is remitted either in life or at the Particular Judgement, Christ made reparation for them on Calvary through His mercy, there bestowing upon the Church the faculty of indulgences.

We make clear that venial sins committed in life by those who damn themselves are converted into mortal sins at the Particular Judgement, since they necessarily renew them there with grave malice, out of hatred for God, when they reject the Divine Mary’s discourse.

(c) Regarding the temporal punishment due to the mortal sins of the saved, although forgiveness of those sins necessarily implies the remission of the deserved eternal punishment - because Christ suffered it on Calvary thus making reparation to the Father - nevertheless, regarding the temporal punishment due to those sins, He completed reparation to the Father in the same way as He made reparation for venial sins. In other words, with Purgatory and with the faculty of indulgences, as the case may be.

(d) Regarding the Angels, although Our Lord Jesus Christ did not make reparation to the Eternal Father on Calvary for the sins of the fallen angels, He did make reparation for them at the beginning of creation through the justice of His Most Divine Soul, producing the searing fire that eternally burns the demons. In other words, by means of Hell, fitting reparation was thus made to the Father for the sins of the rebel Angels.

(e) We clarify that, when we say that Christ, to make reparation to the Father for the mortal sins of the saved, suffered in the passible state of His Most Sacred Humanity the pains of loss and of sense corresponding to Hell, He did so with the sufferings proper to His Passion and Death; in other words, depriving Himself of the beatific vision and sometimes even of infused knowledge in the passible state, and in that state suffering the tortures and other moral and corporal vexations of His enemies. Although Christ, through His sufferings, exceeded many times over all the pain of sense eternally existent in Hell, He did not do so by burning in fire but by suffering the equivalent of that punishment.

9. Concerning the redeeming mission of Our Lord Jesus Christ, gratuitous consequence of His Reparation to the Father, we know that with the shedding of His Most Precious Blood on Calvary He effected the Redemption of the human race, since He gave to all the opportunity to save themselves. Nevertheless only those who avail themselves definitively of grace are the redeemed; and since Christ knew who would fully accept salvation, for them He suffered the pains of loss and of sense for all their mortal sins, thus ransoming them forever from the pains of Hell. Although it is true that many who are in the end damned, during part of their life also take advantage of the benefits of Calvary - with the resultant forgiveness of their sins through reception of the Sacraments, wherefore Christ also suffered for them the corresponding pains of loss and of sense - they participate in the Redemption in a merely transitory and temporary fashion, since they exclude themselves therefrom on recommitting at the Particular Judgement, now in their capacity as reprobates, those forgiven sins. But we make clear that, although Our Lord Jesus Christ with His Passion and Death did not suffer the pains of loss and of sense of the unforgiven sins of the damned, not on that account was His most bloody immolation less painful. For in the passible state of His Soul and of His Body He suffered most bitter grief on beholding the eternal condemnation of many souls. That grief, though neither pain of loss nor of sense, benefits the saved. Consequently Reparation to the Father demanded of Christ the maximum degree of suffering, irrespective of the number saved or condemned, since Redemption is gratuitous consequence of Reparation. That the unspeakable sufferings of Christ on the Cross are definitively applied to make satisfaction for the pains of loss and of sense corresponding to the mortal sins of the saved, and, contrariwise, not definitively applied to make satisfaction for the pains of loss and of sense of the sins forgiven in life of the damned, and in nowise to their other mortal sins, is because reprobates, despising grace, exclude themselves forever from the efficacy of Redemption and Christ is unable to ransom them from Hell. Hence the superabundant graces of Calvary that corresponded to those who are damned redound to the greater benefit of the saved.

10. But since to Christ’s bloody Sacrifice is united that of His Most Holy Mother, it is well to expound some of the mysteries of the co-reparatory and resultant co-redemptory mission of the Divine Co-Victim.

(a) Regarding mortal sins, the Divine Mary in Her life on earth and especially on Calvary suffered, in the passible state of Her Soul and of Her Body, the pains of loss and of sense corresponding exclusively to the forgiven mortal sins of all men; for reparation was made to the Eternal Father for unforgiven sins through His justice manifested in the eternal condemnation of Hell. Exactly as we said when speaking above of Christ’s reparative mission, forgiven mortal sins are those of all who are saved, as likewise those forgiven in life of all who are damned, Although the Divine Mary did not suffer the pains of loss and of sense corresponding to unforgiven sins, nevertheless She made reparation to the Eternal Father for them through Her discourse at clinical death to reprobates. In those unforgiven sins are also included those forgiven in life and afterwards renewed at the Particular Judgement.

(b) Regarding venial sins, although the Divine Mary in the passible state of Her Soul and of Her Body did not suffer the pains of loss and of sense corresponding to venial sins, nevertheless She made reparation to the Father for them in two ways:

(1) Through Her power as Dispensatrix of all graces, for those venial sins whose temporal punishment is remitted during life or at the Particular Judgement through indulgences. The same teaching applies to temporal punishment due to the mortal sins of the saved.

(2) Through Her discourse at clinical death, for venial sins whose temporal punishment must be remitted in Purgatory.

(c) Although on Calvary the Divine Mary did not make reparation to the Eternal Father for the sins of the fallen Angels, She did make reparation to the Eternal Father for them at the beginning of creation through Her dissuasory discourse to those Angels before the consummation of their fall.

(d) Although the Divine Mary did not suffer the pains of loss and of sense of the damned, nevertheless in the passible state of Her Soul and of Her Body She suffered most bitter grief on beholding the eternal condemnation of many souls. That grief, though neither pain of loss nor of sense, benefits the saved.

11. We now treat the co-reparative mission and the consequent co-redemptive mission of each ministerial priest, and in him those of the whole Church.

(a) The ministerial priest celebrating Holy Mass and by means of any other essentially priestly act makes reparation to the Eternal Father,

(1) for the mortal sins of the saved, and for those forgiven in life of the damned, on perpetuating in the Mass the assumption by Christ and Mary of the corresponding pains of loss and of sense;

(2) for the mortal sins of the damned, including those forgiven in life and afterwards renewed at the Particular Judgement, since in the Mass is perpetuated the justice of Hell for the damned and the Divine Mary’s discourse at each Particular Judgement;

(3) for the sins of the fallen Angels, since in the Mass is also perpetuated, in addition to the justice of Hell for these reprobates, the Divine Mary’s dissuasory discourse to them;

(4) for venial sins, as well as for temporal punishment due to them and to the mortal sins of the saved, since in Holy Mass is perpetuated the power of indulgences bestowed by Christ on His Church, the justice of Purgatory for the Holy Souls and the Divine Mary’s discourse at each Particular Judgement.

(b) The ministerial priest and all the Church Militant’s faithful in the state of grace cooperate in making reparation to the Father for all the abovementioned mortal and venial sins through their own finite sacrifices united to Holy Mass.

12. As a preamble to our interpretation of the sacred texts which narrate the most sorrowful episode of Jesus in Gethsemani, and in the light of the dogmatic definitions of His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII, we teach that Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the passible state of His Most Divine Soul and of His Deific Body, at no time during His three hours of Agony in the Garden of Olives, ceased to desire the Reparation to the Eternal Father and the salvation of men; but He wished to be freed from the most bloody Passion had it been possible to consummate the Work by another less painful means. Thus must be understood His triple petition in Gethsemani to the Father, when He asked if it were possible to let the Chalice pass from Him, proof of the natural and unavoidable repugnance which, beholding the countless sufferings of His Passion, Jesus felt in His passible nature, extremely sensitive to moral and physical pain. Although in His triple petition to the Father, Our Divine Saviour desired to be freed from that suffering, nevertheless He continued fully to accept the divine plan which demanded of Him a most bloody immolation, since He subordinated the desire of His passible human will to that of His glorious will, and in short to the divine will. In order to fulfil the Father’s decree on the salvific Work of Reparation and Redemption it was necessary that Jesus, in His passible state, also pronounce in Gethsemani His solemn Fiat; and although He ended with His Fiat each one of the three entreaties which, filled with most bitter grief, He addressed to the Father, the final Fiat attained fullness of expression, when He accepted, as never before, and above all united to His sweat of blood, the ineluctable obligation to make reparation to the Eternal Father and to redeem men through His most bloody and most dolorous Passion and Death. There can be neither greater generosity nor greater annihilation of self for the benefit of poor fallen humanity than the gift that Jesus made of Himself through the sublime Offertory of Gethsemani, surpassed only by His immolation on Calvary.

13. Our Lord Jesus Christ’s mysterious actions, in the passible state of His Soul and of His Body, in Gethsemani, are due to the fact that He - among other objectives, to suffer more - at certain moments of His three hours of Agony in the Garden, suspended part of the infused knowledge in the passible state of His Most Divine Soul; hence His Deific Cerebrum, in the passible state, was limited in its exercise. This in turn implied restricted use of the three powers of His Soul in the passible state; with the resultant veiling, in that state, of certain mysteries of His Passion and Death, and with the corresponding comportment of the Soul according to that lack of knowledge. Hence we observe that in Gethsemani Jesus, through His divine power, at certain moments did not allow His Soul in the passible state to enjoy the complete discernment He possessed concerning the sacred decree of Calvary. That is why He, in that state, beseeched the Father to free Him from that most bloody immolation, truly believing that there existed the possibility of consummating the salvific Work by other means. But not on that account did He ever falter in the knowledge, in the passible state of His Most Sacred Humanity, that He was the Son of God and therefore innocent of the countless sins for which He had to make reparation, in spite of His assuming them as His own with singular, unprecedented compenetration in His three hours of Prayer and Agony. We make clear that although Our Lord Jesus Christ during His most dolorous Passion and Death veiled the infused knowledge of the passible state of His Soul for certain mysteries, nevertheless He always conserved the plenitude of that knowledge for all other mysteries. In other words, Jesus suspended infused knowledge only in what was absolutely necessary in order to suffer more.

14. Continuing our interpretation of the Gospel, we teach that Our Lord Jesus Christ, during the first hour of His Prayer and Agony in the Garden of Olives, in His passible Humanity wished to contemplate bloodily, as never before, all the abominable sins and ingratitude of the Universe, cause of the eternal damnation of countless souls, owing to the grave offence to God that these transgressions entail. To the most bitter grief produced by so ignominious a contemplation, was united the satisfaction He had to give to the Father, justly angered; for Jesus, in His most vehement desire to save us, had assumed in the passible state of His Most Sacred Humanity each and every one of our sins. Thus He appeared before the Eternal Father as the most abject of evildoers, deserving of His Wrath and Malediction, as Saint Paul states: «Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written: Cursed is every one that hangeth on a three» (Gal. III, 13). Therefore in Gethsemani Jesus beheld His most beloved Father armed against Him with the sword of all His vengeance, gazing upon Him with pitiless indignation and disposed to wreak the fury of His implacable wrath upon the Innocent Lamb. Only thus would the august and most just Majesty of the Creator be able to show compassion for poor sinful humanity.

15. Faced with so distressing a vision Our Lord Jesus Christ, shortly before the end of the first hour of His Prayer and Agony, cried out loudly to the Father for the first time, Face to the ground as Saint Matthew recounts: «My Father, if it be possible, let this Chalice pass from Me. Nevertheless, not as I will but as Thou wilt» (Matt. XXVI, 39). Saint Mark says as follows: «Abba, Father all things are possible to Thee: remove this Chalice from Me; but not what I will, but what Thou wilt» (Mark XIV, 36). Coordinating the two texts we gather that the first words that Jesus, in His passible state, spoke after naming the Father, were those of Saint Mark: «All things are possible to Thee» (Mark XIV, 36), knowing, in his anguished desire to be freed from that suffering, that only divine omnipotence could modify the bloody manner of the Decree of Calvary for another less dolorous. That is why Jesus at once added: «If it be possible, let this Chalice pass from Me» (Matt. XXVI, 39), showing at the same time His perfect willingness to drink it in all the intensity of its bitterness, which is why He adds: «Nevertheless, not as I will but as Thou wilt», as both Evangelists relate. We note that Saint Mark puts before the word «Father» the Aramaic term «Abba», which also means `Father’, and which the Evangelist uses to demonstrate the affectionate tenderness with which Christ invoked His Father. That is why here «Abba, Father», is the equivalent of «My Father», the expression used by Saint Matthew. After Jesus had cried out for the first time, as we have seen in both verses, the first two Evangelists state, according to our interpretation, that He went over to where Peter, James and John were and found them asleep. In the light of the above texts we teach that when Jesus previously left the three Apostles for His first hour of Prayer, they were exceedingly afflicted and bewildered on account of the distressing human demeanour of their Master, Whom they had never before seen in such a state. Although at first they endeavoured to keep watch and to pray, they soon allowed themselves to be overcome by sleep. Saint Mark relates that Jesus, when He found them asleep, said to Peter: «Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst thou not watch one hour?» (Mark XTV, 37). In Saint Matthew we see also, according to our interpretation, His identical reprimand to the other two, Peter included, whom at the same time He held chiefly responsible for their negligence, because of his duty as head to give example for the others to imitate; that is why He said to Peter: «What? could you not watch one hour with Me?» (Matt. XXVI, 40), alluding to the first hour of His Prayer. Forthwith both Evangelists recount that Jesus warned: «Watch and pray that you do not fall in temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak» (Matt. XXVI, 41; Mark XIV, 38). With those words Jesus wished to forewarn them of the imminent danger they faced, in order that they avoid it by strengthening themselves with prayer and penance. For one of the greatest sufferings of His Agony and Prayer in the Garden was there to behold His sad and bitter abandonment by the Apostles on His being seized, and, above all, Peter’s subsequent cowardice and triple denial. That is the main reason why He admonished them with fatherly severity for not having prayed and watched with Him during that first hour, exhorting them anew to do so in order not to fall in temptation. For although they truly wished to be faithful to their Master, Whom they loved greatly, nevertheless that good disposition of spirit could easily succumb in the face of their natural frailty. Also, with that warning to the three Apostles is glimpsed the Master’s deep desire that they accompany Him with their prayers in His Agony in Gethsemani, and thus cooperate in a most special way in the Work of Reparation and Redemption, to which on Calvary the Church would be officially committed with its finite sacrifice.

16. Saint Matthew goes on to say of Jesus that «Again the second time, He went and prayed...» (Matt. XXVI, 42). As is inferred from these words He returned to where He was before, and gave Himself up anew to prayer in the solitude of His expiatory night, plunged into yet greater sufferings. For in the second hour of His Agony, on considering the sins of the world, He felt upon Himself, more particularly and as never before, the oppressive burden of the treachery and ingratitude of many of His own, namely of the members of His Church of all times, singularly of those consecrated to Him by the Priesthood and the religious life, which would imply in His Most Sorrowful Passion and Death, for the saved, a most costly ransom. As we further interpret from Saint Matthew, moments before the end of the second hour of Prayer in the Garden Jesus cried out again to the Father, as the Evangelist records: «My Father, if this Chalice may not pass away, but I must drink it, Thy will be done» (Matt. XXVI, 42). Saint Mark alludes to the second hour of Jesus’ Prayer and Agony in the Garden when he says: «And going away again, He prayed , saying the same words» (Mark XIV, 39); that is to say, that Jesus addressed His plea to the Father, exactly as Saint Matthew tells it.

17. When the Prayer pertaining to the second hour had ended, which was after His cry to the Father, Saint Luke says that Jesus, «when He rose up from prayer and was come to the disciples, He found them sleeping for sorrow. And He said to them: Why sleep you? Arise: pray, lest you fall in temptation» (Luke XXII, 45-46). As we observe from the sacred text, sorrow was the principal cause of the three Apostles’ somnolence, to which we add that, in effect, sleep is wont at times to be a resort to which a man easily turns when in low spirits, in order thereby to free himself for a while from the accompanying affliction. Saint Matthew relates as follows: «And He cometh again and findeth them sleeping: for their eyes were heavy» (Matt. XXVI, 43). Saint Mark, who says this in like manner to the foregoing, adds: «And they knew not what to answer Him» (Mark XIV, 40b). From these texts we gather that the Master, in the second visit to Peter, James and John, gave them the very same warnings and exhortations as previously, though now with greater severity; without the three Apostles, confused and perplexed by the strange circumstances about them, knowing what to say.

18. With respect to Our Lord Jesus Christ’s third hour of Prayer and Agony in the Garden of Olives, Saint Matthew gives us this brief reference: «And leaving them, He went again: and He prayed the third time, saying the selfsame words» (Matt. XXVI, 44), from which we gather that Jesus, after leaving the three Apostles, returned to where He had prayed on the two previous occasions, also using similar expressions in His cry to the Father. Saint Luke, according to our interpretation, in his Gospel speaks of the culminating moment of Jesus’ Prayer and Agony in Gethsemani with the following words, here correctly arranged: «And being in Agony, He prayed the longer. And His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground. Saying: Father, if Thou wilt, remove this Chalice from Me: but yet not My will be done, but Thine. And there appeared to Him an Angel from Heaven, comforting Him» (Luke XXII, 42-44).

19. The suffering of our dearly beloved Master in Gethsemani reached its peak in His third hour of Prayer, when He considered, with supremely sorrowful insight, how fruitless for many His most bloody Passion and Death would be. When He beheld that His Deific Blood, which He was to pour out generously for the human race, would be for many the occasion of scandal and, yet more, of eternal condemnation - -because of their obstinate rejection of grace - the passible state of His Most Sacred Humanity became seized by such horror that many of His Most Sacred Veins burst from the intensity of the pain, and a quantity of His salvific Blood passed through His skin to the whole outside of His Body - flowing down even to the ground - -above all from His Most Divine Face, completely bathed in Blood from sweat and tears. Precisely at that moment the most patient Man of Sorrows, with excruciating affliction, cried out to the Father for the third time to free Him, if it were His will, from the ignominious Passion and Death, at the same time as, in an act of indescribable surrender, He submitted to the bloody plan of Calvary: «Father, if Thou wilt, remove this Chalice from Me: but yet not My will, but Thine be done» (Luke XXII, 42). Saint Luke says that «there appeared to Him an Angel from Heaven, comforting Him» (Luke XXII, 43a). We teach that the heavenly Messenger was the Archangel Saint Uriel who, in human form, and accompanied by a legion of angels, bore in his hands the Chalice of Melchisedech, taken from the Cenacle, there empty, and in which he gathered up all of the most sacred drops of Blood shed by Jesus in His majestic Agony, in order then to present them to the Divine Master to comfort Him in His indescribable sufferings. The content of the Gospel passage of Saint Luke is sublime and profound: the celestial Saint Uriel, showing to Jesus the Chalice containing drops of His deific and salvific Blood, was anticipatedly representing the Reparation to the Father; as also the salvation of countless souls by virtue of Calvary, those who profit from the Blood shed there. The contemplation of the fruits of His Passion and Death was, at that moment in Gethsemani, so consoling for the dolorous and meek Lamb, that the passible state of His Most Sacred Humanity was exceedingly strengthened, and yearned with yet greater vehemence to consummate His bloody immolation as soon as possible. Besides, this state regained that part of infused knowledge previously suspended, and His Most Divine Body became as prior to His bloody Offertory. If at the beginning Jesus, in His most grief-laden Agony, mainly centered His attention on the holy Wrath of His offended Father and on the terrible sins of men, now however, gazing at the Chalice shown to Him by the Archangel, He centered it on the good works of the Church’s children, especially on the fortitude of Martyrs, on the valiant testimony of Confessors, on the continence of Virgins, on the penance of the converted and, in general, on the sanctity and glorification of His Mystical Body. And all of this as gratuitous consequence of the Reparation He would make to the Father, Whom He also saw now infinitely pleased with the Son and and all those who were to cooperate with Him in the Work of Salvation. The Archangel Saint Uriel, having concluded his manifestation, retained the Sacred Chalice in order to gather up in it, even to the very last drop, the Blood the Divine Victim would shed in His most bloody Passion and which, on gathering, he would deposit in the Ciborium reserved in the tabernacle of the Cenacle, without the vessel’s contents ever increasing.

20. The first two Evangelists (Matt. XXVI, 45-46; Mark XIV, 41-42), with similar expressions, furnish some details of events in the Garden of Gethsemani once Jesus had ended His Prayer and Agony, and prior to the arrival of those who were to seize Him. Let us examine Saint Mark’s text, since we deem it more complete: «And He cometh the third time and saith to them: Sleep ye now and take your rest. Enough: the hour is come: behold the Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise up: let us go, Behold, he that will betray Me is at hand» (Mark XIV, 41-42). We teach that when the Master came the third time to where Peter, James and John were, He again found them asleep. Wherefore He first revealed to them His profound affliction on account of their negligence in the prayer and watchfulness He had previously commanded them. Then, knowing that rest was now no longer possible for them, since difficult hours approached, He said to His three Apostles with holy irony: «Sleep ye now and take your rest». In their drowsiness they took this literally and not as a reprimand. Hence they made themselves more comfortable in order to continue their repose, thinking that Jesus would return to His Prayer again and would allow them to rest in the meantime. Seeing the ingenuously egoistic conduct of the three Apostles, asleep in His presence, the Master forcefully summoned them to the reality of the situation, saying: «Enough», that is to say, `Enough now of sleep!’ Forthwith, first He warned them that the hour of His Arrest had come and then commanded them to arise and make quickly to where the other Apostles were, in view of the impending proximity of the rabble headed by the traitor.

21. We interrupt the Gospel narrative now to consider events meanwhile at the Cenacle, where Jesus’ Most Holy Mother, Her two sisters and others were. The Divine Mary, in Her indispensable and most grievous mission as Co-Reparatrix and Co-Redemptrix, from the Cenacle accompanied Her Divine Son in the most sorrowful ordeal of His Prayer and Agony in Gethsemani. When the moment arrived for the most bloody Offertory to begin, the most sweet and sorrowful Mother, without ceasing to be visible in the Cenacle, was simultaneously present in the Garden of Olives, where the most patient Man of Sorrows suffered in utter abandonment, sharing with Him, unseen to anyone else, the contemplation of the sins of the world, of the Father’s unconstrainable wrath and of the most bloody sufferings of Calvary. In order that the Divine Mary partake of suffering to the utmost, Our Lord Jesus Christ suspended in Her, as never before, not only the gift of impassibility in the passible state of Her Soul and accidental Body - both elements becoming extremely sensitive to pain - but also veiled a large part of Her infused knowledge, to deprive Her of the understanding of certain mysteries of Her co-reparatory and co-redemptory mission. The Divine Mary’s Prayer and Agony in the Cenacle lasted four consecutive hours and occurred in two phases: the first, sharing with Her Most Divine Son Jesus His own Agony, for the space of three hours; and then, suffering Her own Agony in the following hour.

(a) In the first phase of Her spiritual Agony in the Cenacle, for the space of three hours, the Most Holy Virgin Mary thrice implored the Eternal Father, at the same time and using the same words as Christ in the Garden of Olives, to free Her from the most sorrowful spiritual Passion and Death that was Hers as Co—Victim. But this She implored only if it were possible by other less painful means to cooperate duly in the Work of Salvation; since the Mother of Dolours, in the passible state of Her Divine Soul and most pure accidental Body, at no time of Her Agony in the Cenacle ceased to desire the Reparation to the Eternal Father and the salvation of men; moreover, She submitted to the divine plan of Her most bloody spiritual Passion by means of Her solemn Fiat thrice uttered together with Her Divine Son, sharing with Him the sweat of Blood.

(b) In the second phase of Her spiritual Agony in the Cenacle, during the fourth hour, which was from 3 a.m. until 4 a.m., the Most Holy Virgin Mary beheld Her own spiritual Death on Calvary as Co-Victim and Mother of the Mystical Body. That immolation, as we know, would consist in Her being deprived for seven seconds of the vision of the divine essence that She always enjoyed. And since for Her this would be more transpiercing and dolorous than any other suffering, She again sweated Blood in the passible state of Her most pure accidental Body, at the same time as, with excruciating affliction, She beseeched the Father to free Her from so atrocious a Death were it possible by another means to consummate as Co-Victim the Work of Salvation, which She always desired; therefore She again submitted to the divine plan pronouncing a solemn Fiat to Her own Spiritual Death on Calvary.

In the first phase of Her Agony in the Cenacle the Divine Mary did not share with Her Divine Son the Archangel Saint Uriel’s apparition, for Her moment of consolation had not yet come; nevertheless, this came to Her shortly before the end of the hour of Her own spiritual Agony, since after pronouncing there Her final solemn Fiat, in the passible state of Her Soul She recovered that part of infused knowledge previously suspended. Thus She was strengthened in that state and filled with jubilation on beholding with sublime insight the fruit which would accompany Her own spiritual Death at the foot of the Cross, since with Her Death She would give birth to the Church and as Divine Co-Victim would consummate Her co-reparatory and co-redemptory mission. We teach that the Divine Mary’s two sweats of Blood in the Cenacle, though visible to Her, were not observed by anybody else, not even by Mary Cleophas and Mary Salome, at Her side in constant prayer and watchfulness, although they did penetrate into the mysterious Offertory of their Most Holy Sister and united themselves to Her Sacrifice at the same time as, with sublime selflessness, they made reparation to Her Immaculate Heart. Moreover, the Most High did not permit any of the drops of the Divine Mary’s most pure Blood to fall to the ground, and they all miraculously returned to Her most pure veins when each bloody sweat had ended.

22. Continuing the Gospel narrative we teach that when Jesus, with Peter, James and John, returned to the Grotto known as that of the Arrest, where the other Apostles had remained, He found all eight asleep; and, after waking them, He reproached them manifesting His profound sadness at their want of prayer and watchfulness. As the troop headed by the traitor that was coming to seize Him was now drawing closer, the Master wished to prepare His Apostles for so difficult a moment. To strengthen them further and in order that it serve them as teaching in the future, the most humble Master knelt and bade the Eleven do likewise, all remaining for some time in prayer. This ended, Jesus went on first to reveal to them Judas Iscariot’s prevarication, known only to Saint John, and then exhorted them to remain magnanimous, serene and steadfast in the Faith; for divine protection would not fail them, since He ardently desired them to accompany Him during the entire course of His Most Sorrowful Passion and Death, and, should it be necessary, confess with humility and courage that they were His disciples, to whom He had taught the true Faith. Furthermore, that they bear with resignation the sufferings that might result from such honourable conduct; and thus, as witnesses to His countless sufferings, imitate Him and as well give testimony of them to the Church.

23. The Evangelist Saint John precedes the narrative concerning Jesus’ Arrest in the Garden with these words: «And Judas also, who betrayed Him, knew the place: because Jesus had often resorted thither together with His disciples» (John XVIII, 2). The reason Judas Iscariot wanted the Master captured promptly was to be rid of Him as soon as possible, since the Lord knew his treacherous plans and this filled the traitor with hellish confusion. While the members of the Sanhedrin deliberated, Judas was busy locating Jesus, Whom he found at last in the Garden of Olives with the eleven Apostles. Some of the Sanhedrin’s henchmen assisted in the search, and remained on the watch in the area of Gethsemani while the Iscariot returned in haste to Caiphas’ house to inform the Council. The Sanhedrin’s proposals for putting Jesus to death were several. One, that it was best to do so when the feast was over, as has already been stated. Another, to do so quickly, privately and in the greatest secrecy. And also a third: to give an official character to the affair, to which end they would attempt to win over the people so that the Divine Master’s death have the consent of the vast majority. It was the last proposal that prevailed among the Sanhedrists since they deemed it less hazardous for themselves and more humiliating for Christ, with resultant loss of prestige before His followers. However, for this they required the backing of the Roman authorities. Wherefore the Sanhedrin sent a commission to Pontius Pilate so that with all speed they might proceed to Jesus’ arrest and trial. With the powerful official request of the Sanhedrin itself, Pontius Pilate felt obliged to offer a cohort of some five hundred Roman soldiers to protect the Jewish religious authorities in view of possible commotion at the Master’s Arrest, and thus carry it out with the greatest order and security. Although the measures prior to the capture were promptly effected, divine providence did not permit everything to be ready until Jesus had entered His three hours of Prayer and Agony in Gethsemani.

24. Saint John goes on to say: «Judas therefore having received a band of soldiers and servants from the Chief Priests and the Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons» (John XVIII, 3). The Evangelist, as well as indicating to us that it was the traitor who headed the expedition that went to the Garden of Olives to seize Christ, relates its composition, to which we merely alluded in the previous chapter of this Treatise when we said that it was made up of Roman soldiers, Temple guards and Jews. The other Evangelist, who complement what Saint John narrates, identify this expedition with the term «multitude» (Matt. XXVI, 47; Mark XIV, 43; Luke XXII, 47). Saint Mark (XIV, 43), who almost coincides with Saint Matthew (XXVI, 47), says that the expedition was sent by the Chief Priests, scribes and elders; namely, the three groups making up the Sanhedrin. Hence the expedition or capture troop was formed, (1) by some of the Chief Priests, magistrates of the Temple and elders of the Sanhedrin, as we shall see later on in Saint Luke (XXII, 52); (2) by the cohort of Roman soldiers, some on horseback and others on foot, in good order, wearing uniforms and bearing swords, and commanded by a tribune, as we gather from a subsequent verse of Saint John; (3) by the guards of the High Priests and Pharisees to which the Gospel text refers, which one and only corps of guards had the following missions: the personal safekeeping of the High Priests Annas and Caiphas; that of the other members of the Sanhedrin; as likewise, the overseeing of the fulfilment of the laws emitted by that body, both in the Temple and in the city. The members of this guard came provided with ropes, chains, lighted torches and the weapon of their office; (4) by some of the common people, with sticks and other aggressive instruments, who at the instigation of the Sanhedrin joined in along the way, as is gathered from Saint Matthew (XXVI, 47) and Saint Mark (XIV, 43). As a result, the components of the expedition that went to the Garden made up a total of a thousand in all. Thus was fulfilled that foretold in verse 7 of Psalm XC, of David: «A thousand shall fall at Thy side, and ten thousand at Thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh Thee»; for as we shall see, all who went to seize Jesus were hurled to the ground by His infinite power, without their being allowed to seize Him for the time being; and also the demons, identified in the Psalm by the figurative number «ten thousand», were momentarily stripped of their power as well. It is well to add that besides the capture troops, the Governor Pontius Pilate ordered another detachment of Roman soldiers to mount guard along the way from the Garden to Jerusalem, in view of possible disorders in Jesus’ favour, above all in the suburb of Orphel where the people had a very special affection for Him because of the miracles He had performed there.

25. Saint Matthew and Saint Mark, referring to the arrival of Jesus’ enemies to seize Him, begin by saying: «As He yet spoke...» (Matt. XXVI, 47; Mark XIV, 43). Saint Luke (XXII, 47) uses similar terms. Moments before the deicide troop reached the gate of the Grotto of the Arrest, Jesus, Who inside was still speaking with His Apostles, bade the Eleven go forth with Him to the confrontation with heroic confidence. At around 3.15 a.m. on Good Friday, once they were outside the Grotto and a few steps from the entrance, Judas Iscariot arrived leading the rabble, to whom the traitor was to give the agreed sign by which to recognize the Master in the night that, though lit by a full moon, was shadowed by the dense trees.

26. Jesus’ Arrest is narrated by the four Evangelists (Matt. XXVI, 47-56; Mark XIV, 43-52; Luke XXII, 47-53; John XVIII, 2-12) whose texts we chronologically combine, culling the most essential from each, according to our interpretation. Saint Mark relates: «And he that betrayed Him had given them a sign, saying: Whomsoever I shall kiss, that is He. Lay hold on Him: and lead Him away carefully. And when He was come, immediately going up to Him, he saith: Hail, Rabbi! And he kissed Him» (Mark XIV, 44-45). Judas Iscariot’s act of placing, with effusive sarcasm, his repugnant kiss on the Most Divine Face of Christ, thus to identify Him more easily in the presence of the rabble, and particularly in the presence of the Temple guards entrusted with seizing Him, was with the intention of concealing his refined malice from the Apostles with pretended friendship, and to maintain the appearance before the others of fulfilling a noble mission in the service of the Sanhedrin. For the kiss, which among the Jews was the foremost sign of affectionate respect, was used here by Judas for greater perfidy. Saint Matthew goes on to relate that «Jesus said to him: Friend, whereto art thou come?» (Matt. XXVI, 50). With that expression the loving Master ended His merciful dealings with the inhuman Apostle, in order to reveal tohim thus the immense bitterness caused Him by so cynical a manner of betrayal, whereby he had sealed his now inevitable eternal damnation; and besides, to evidence that not even at this moment did he lack proof of the infinite tenderness of the Master’s most loving Heart. As Jesus’ goodness further provoked the Iscariot’s deicide fury, the traitor chose to make no reply at all, and thereby keep his falsehood concealed from the rest. But this was not permitted by the Master, since in a voice heard by all present He said to him: «Judas, dost thou betray the Son of Man with a kiss?» (Luke XXII, 48), thus publicly disclosing the traitor’s hypocrisy and infamy; and this serving as a sign to Jesus’ enemies that nothing was hidden from Him, since He was the Son of God. The eminent Doctor Saint Mary of Jesus of Agreda, according to our interpretation, quite correctly teaches that Judas’ treachery encompassed so many and such enormous sins that it is impossible to weigh up all his malice, since he was faithless, murderous, sacrilegious, thankless, disobedient, inhuman, false, deceitful, greedy, impious and master of hypocrites; and all this towards the Person of God Himself made Man.

27. The detestable scene of Judas’ kiss took place, as we know, when Jesus together with His eleven Apostles was a few paces from the gate of the Grotto of the Arrest. But we teach that when Judas had fulfilled his hypocritical mission he rejoined the rabble that, some yards distant, awaited the prey like ravenous wolves. Then occurred that related by Saint John: «Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth and said to them: Whom do you seek? They answered him: Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith to them: I am He. And Judas also, who betrayed Him, was with them. As soon therefore as He had said to them; I am He, they went backward and fell to the ground» (John XVIII, 4-6). We teach that the Divine Master, before permitting His seizure, drew nearer to His enemies, and in their presence gave a triple display of His infinite power in order to make them more aware of the fact that they dared to affront God Himself, invincible, even though He was to submit to their ephemeral dominion for the time being to fulfil the divine plan. We see in the sacred text, according to our interpretation, that He openly demonstrated His Supreme Authority to the insolent rabble, as He had demonstrated His Divinity to Moses on Mount Sinai; since, although the referred Gospel text places the words «I am He» on Jesus’ lips, we teach that those present understood them in the sense of «I am Who am», which identified Him as the tremendous and omnipotent God of Israel, for the words penetrated their perverse hearts with the force of their deepest meaning, causing them irresistible dread that cast them to the ground, since they understood that solely from God could so majestic and solemn a pronouncement come. Coordinating the magisterial teaching of His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII (Sermon 8-3-84) with the sublime doctrine of the Holy Mystic of Agreda we make the following clarification to this Gospel passage from Saint John (XVIII, 4-6). On each of the three occasions that Our Lord Jesus Christ, to manifest His power, said to His adversaries «I am He», all fell on their knees before the Supreme Authority of the Onlybegotten of God, firstly rendering Him, irresistibly, adoration, then falling flat on their backs, remaining thus motionless and silent for about a minute on each occasion; and with them all Hell was abased as never before. Hence the total time that elapsed during Christ’s three pronouncements, with the resultant falling to the ground and rising up three times of the enemy troop, was some seven minutes. The troops’ horses and dogs were also as if petrified at the same time as their owners. We complete our doctrine speaking of the great astonishment caused to the Apostles by Christ’s crushing - albeit momentary - triumph over His enemies cast to the ground. In suchwise were the hearts of the Eleven filled with enthusiasm that they deemed as almost impossible the fulfillment of the most sorrowful prophecies concerning their Master, Whom they praised with expressions of jubilation at the same time as manifesting their impatience at His not availing Himself of the opportunity to depart from there with them.

28. After Jesus had given triple proof of His power by hurling His enemies to the ground, He, for the fourth time, as we interpret Saint John, «asked them: Whom seek ye? And they said: Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered: I have told you that I am He. If therefore you seek Me, let these go their way» (John XVIII, 7-8). In accordance with our interpretation of the sacred text, we teach that the reason Jesus asked His enemies «Whom seek ye?» on this forth occasion, was in order for them to confirm with their reply that the official order of capture was against Him alone and not against the Apostles; and, moreover, that the Gospel words «I am He», with which Jesus identified Himself a fourth time, were spoken by Him to demonstrate His disposition to give Himself over voluntarily, although He demanded of them not to touch any of the Eleven there with Him; for Judas Iscariot, on his own initiative, had incited the troop to capture these as well, because he feared they would afterwards take reprisals against him for the Master’s death. Christ’s strict injunction on behalf of His Apostles instilled fresh fear into His enemies, on understanding that He would not allow them any aggression against the Apostles, under pain of demonstrating to them, as previously, His infinite power, and now to their greater punishment. At the same time Christ inspired the Eleven with a feeling of unshakeable confidence in divine protection with the objective that they abandon Him neither at His Arrest nor at any other moment of His Most Sorrowful Passion and Death, during the course of which no harm would come to them since their hour of persecution and martyrdom had not yet arrived. Hence the Gospel expression «let these go their way» was a harsh warning to His enemies to refrain from harming the Apostles, and not license to the Eleven to go away. Saint John completes this episode adding: «That the word might be fulfilled which He said: Of them whom Thou hast given Me, I have not lost any one» (John XVII, 9), expression that corresponds to Jesus’ plea to the Father for His Apostles in the second part of the Sermon of the Last Supper, and which the Evangelist cites in this episode of the Garden to establish clearly that Jesus, knowing that with His Arrest all the Apostles would at last forsake Him, did strengthen them in order that this might not result in irreparable harm.

29. Saint Luke affords continuity to the Gospel narrative with these words: «And they that were about Him, seeing what would follow, said to Him: Lord, shall we strike with the sword ?» (Luke XXII, 49). We teach that while Jesus conversed with those who were to arrest Him, the Apostles, seeing that He would be bound and taken prisoner, drew their machetes and suggested to the Master their use against His enemies. From the texts of Saint Matthew and Saint Mark we deduce that Jesus’ Arrest occurred in two phases. The first is related by the first two Evangelists, of whose texts we here cite that of Saint Matthew: «Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and held Him» (Matt. XXVI, 50). Which is to say that, while the Apostles suggested to the Lord the use of weapons in His defence, the bailiffs rushed at the Master and held Him firmly. This so exasperated Peter that, with his machete, he struck violently at the head of Malchus, chief bailiff and Caiphas’ servant, with the aim of killing him, although by divine providence he only managed to cut off an ear, as the four Evangelist relate, of whom we here cite the text of Saint John: «Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the servant of the High Priest and cut off his right ear. And the name of the servant was Malchus» (John XVIII, 10). Peter’s intrepid and wound-dealing intrusion, as likewise the threats of the other Apostles, surprised the bailiffs, who, fearful, released Jesus; then occurred that related by Saint Matthew, Saint Luke and Saint John, whose texts we arrange according to our interpretation: «But Jesus answering said: Cease! Enough! And when He had touched his ear, He healed him» (Luke XXII, 51), from which we interpret that the Master, after commanding the Apostles to cease their aggression, picked up Malchus’ ear from the ground and miraculously restored it to its place. And «Jesus therefore said to Peter: Put up thy sword into the scabbard» (John XVIII, 11). «For all that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot ask My Father, and he will give Me presently more than twelve legions of angels?» (Matt. XXVI, 52—53). «The Chalice which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?» (John XVIII, 11). «How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that so it must be done?» (Matt. XXVI, 54). Christ rebuked Peter and the other Apostles, since, with the ill-considered use of weapons they ran the double risk of being killed right there or of being arrested and afterwards executed. Wherefore Jesus, among other reasons, restored Malchus’ ear to avoid reprisals against the Apostles, whether from the mob or from judicial authority. Although He had guaranteed the Eleven His protection so that they ran no physical risk during the course of His Passion and Dead, this immunity depended as well on their prudent behaviour; it had therefore been inopportune to oppose an unruly mob, when Christ neither required nor desired to make use of weapons, nor of any other means, for His defence; for had He so wished, all the Angels were at His disposal. But the hour had come for Him to deliver Himself up and to consummate His mission one earth. As Saint Mary of Jesus of Agreda magisterially teaches, by this loving rebuke, Saint Peter, as Head he would be of the Church, was warned and enlightened that his weapons to establish and defend her had to be those of spiritual power, and that the Law of the Gospel teaches to combat and to conquer, not with material swords, but with humility, patience, meekness and perfect charity, overcoming the world, the flesh and the devil. Besides, we teach that by this reprimand to Peter and the other Apostles, Jesus also warned them that the moment had come to don more especially spiritual arms, so as serenely and steadfastly to face up to the difficult moments of accompanying Him during His ignominious Passion, and thus give testimony before the world that they served Him faithfully. With this teaching we by no means disallow the lawful use of material weapons, should it be necessary, in defence of the rights of God and of His Church, as has occurred so often in the history of Christianity; because when the enemies of the true Faith do not cease to practise and propagate their errors despite the teachings of the Church, she must remedy such great evil by employing the sword against them. We make clear that the restitution of Malchus’ ear was also an additional proof of Jesus’ infinite power and goodness, by which He clearly evidenced to His enemies the nobility and magnanimity of His Deific Heart, as likewise the mystery of His Divinity.

30. After Jesus had reprimanded His Apostles, He addressed the «multitudes» (Matt. XXVI, 55), especially «the Chief Priests and magistrates of the Temple and the elders, that were come unto Him» (Luke XXII, 52), as is seen in the sacred texts of the first tree Evangelists, correctly interpreted, from which we select the following: «You are come out as it were to a robber with swords and clubs to apprehend Me. I sat daily with you teaching in the Temple: and you laid not hands upon Me» (Matt. XXVI, 55), «...but this is your hour and the power of darkness» (Luke XXII, 53); «Now all this was done that the Scriptures of the Prophets might be fulfilled» (Matt. XXVI, 56). In this way the Master admonished His enemies for their cowardly and contemptible action of surprising Him at night, as if dealing with an escaped convict and highwayman, when He had so often appeared publicly in Jerusalem; and if hitherto they had not laid hands upon Him, it was because He had not allowed it; but now He freely delivered Himself up to the iniquitous power of the Sanhedrin, the Synagogue of Satan, in order that everything foretold about the death of the Messias be fulfilled. -As Saint Mary of Jesus of Agreda magisterially teaches, Our Lord Jesus Christ, rebuking the soulless rabble, spoke to their hearts as One Who penetrated them and comprehended their evil and the hatred they had conceived for Him; as likewise the reason for their envy - His having reproached the vices of the Priests and Pharisees, and having taught the people the truth and the way to eternal life.

31. When the Divine Master had finished speaking to the foul rabble, which was at 3.30 a.m., the second and definitive Arrest took place, as we interpret the following text of Saint John: «Then the band and the tribune and the servants of the Jews took Jesus and bound Him» (John XVIII, 12); and also that of Saint Luke: «And apprehending Him...» (Luke XXII, 54a). We teach that when the eleven Apostles saw their Master surrounded by the enraged mob without offering any resistance to His capture, for He serenely and meekly allowed Himself to be bound, they, seized with confusion and panic, first wished to persuade Him to free Himself from His enemies through His infinite power. But observing that He did not, they lost faith in the protection He had promised them. Wherefore, as is seen in Saint Matthew (XXVI, 56) and Saint Mark (XIV, 50), the Eleven forsook Him and fled, thereby fulfilling that foretold by the Prophet Zacharias: «Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered» (Zach. XIII, 7), a prophecy the Master had also announced to them shortly beforehand (Matt. XXVI, 31; Mark XIV, 27). Most bitter was Christ’s suffering at the desertion of the eleven Apostles; which, though not entailing their apostasy from the Faith, did imply a grievous sin of cowardice and disloyalty, since it opposed their Master’s most vehement desire that they accompany Him in His most sorrowful Passion, bearing witness to His innocence before the iniquitous tribunals so that the calumnious accusations of the false witnesses thus be countered. The Apostles’ cowardice was the sad outcome of their want of prayer and watchfulness in the Garden during the Master’s three hours of Agony. After Jesus was seized, there took place in the Garden itself the delivery to Judas Iscariot of the thirty pieces of silver, which he received from the accursed right hand of Annas’ servant who, we teach, was that same Malchus, head bailiff or minister in charge of the arrest; and who was therefore the first to lay his right hand on the Divine Nazarene.

32. We further enrich the teaching on Our Lord Jesus Christ’s Arrest with the following descriptions taken from Saint Mary of Jesus of Agreda, as we deem them most accurate, and which we complete according to our interpretation. First they crossed Jesus’ arms behind His back, binding His wrists with fine and cutting cords. Next they bound Him with an iron chain of strong and heavy links, which interlaced His neck, waist, hands and feet, thereby giving Him the appearance of the most abject of slaves. Unsatisfied with this manner of securing Him they set a rope about His neck and, crossing it at the breast, wound it around His Body leaving two long ends free, in order for the bailiffs to jerk Him about at their pleasure and caprice. In addition, using another rope they intertwined His waist and arms, in suchwise that others went behind restraining and jerking the Lord about as well. When fastened in this way - on Judas Iscariot’s advice - all left Gethsemani for Jerusalem, and with them the traitor since he wished to wreak further vengeance on the Master, and also sought the mob’s protection against any possible aggression by the Apostles. Jesus made His way with painful difficulty and shedding of Blood. For, as the Mystic of Agreda goes on to say, the mob, with unimaginable fury, impelled the Lord to hasten forward, pulled Him back and stopped Him, dragged Him from side to side, and often threw Him to the ground on His venerable Countenance which became lacerated and befouled; and in these falls they rushed upon Him brutally with blows and kicks. We do not wish to omit the striking detail furnished by the exalted Mystic Saint Anne Catherine Emmerich, who says, following our judgement, that as Jesus crossed the bridge over the Cedron Brook, they flung Him violently against the stones of the river bed, barely covered by water, sarcastically telling Him, as if dealing with an animal, to quench His thirst. The Mystical Doctor adds that in this way, amongst others, was fulfilled the following prophecy of David’s Psalms: «He shall drink of the torrent in the way» (Ps. CIX, 7). We complete the above doctrine teaching that Jesus’ dolorous route from Gethsemani to Jerusalem was as follows: first He passed before Most Holy Joseph’s tomb, now known as the sepulchre of the Virgin; next He crossed the little bridge over the Cedron; and then followed southwards the route between the brook and the city wall, with the Golden Gate to His right; and once inside the walls by the Fountain Gate, He entered the city, climbing the stepped path, of Machabaean origin, that reaches the present-day church of the Gallicantus; and from there they brought Him to the ecclesiastical tribunal.

33. The Evangelist Saint Mark, after narrating Jesus’ Arrest and His Apostles’ desertion, presents us with this mysterious passage: «And a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body. And they laid hold on him. But he, casting off the linen cloth, fled from them naked» (Mark XIV, 51-52). This Holy Council teaches that the controversial young man of the Gospel was Sidonius, the blind man of the pool of Siloe, whose healing by Christ Saint John narrates. As we already stated in Chapter XXXII of this Treatise, Sidonius lived in the suburb of Ophel, near the pool. We now add that the suburb and pool were then within Jerusalem’s walls. And it happened that as the mob returned from Gethsemani, on passing by Ophel, young Sidonius, who was at home asleep, woke up suddenly at the tramp of horses and other strange sounds. Wrapped in one of the sheets from his bed he went out to see what was happening, thereupon observing the soulless mob leading the Divine Master captive. However, the intrepid young man followed them, until discovered by the bailiffs and seized by the sheet that covered him, enabling him to flee more easily leaving the sheet in their hands. The reason they attempted to seize Sidonius was that, with his shouts, he woke the residents of the suburb, as Saint Anne Catherine Emmerich relates, according to our interpretation. While Our Lord was being taken away prisoner, as the mob passed by the suburb of Ophel, the simple folk who lived there and who venerated the Master, some warned by Sidonius and others awakened by the uproar, left their homes to see what had happened, and were repulsed by the soldiery; who at the same time, incited by Judas Iscariot, said to them <>, which notice so affected the humble folk that they wept and cried out to Heaven, remembering the Master’s benefits. Nevertheless, the military did not wish to excrcise great violence against the inhabitants of Ophel so as to avert open resistance on their part, and confined themselves to clearing the path Jesus had to take. It is well to clarify that when the Evangelist says of Sidonius that the young man was naked, it is to indicate that he wore only the garment used for sleeping, namely the inner tunic the Jews always used.

34 But let us see what became of the Apostles. While Jesus was being led away from Gethsemani, the Eleven, after their cowardly stampede, hid on Mount Olivet without losing contact with one another. Wherefore shortly afterwards they reassembled on an elevated part of the Mount whence they saw the mob withdraw from Gethsemani taking Jesus along to Jerusalem. Eight of the Apostles then proceeded to Bethany to rejoin the disciples and holy women there and inform them of the sad news. But Peter, in all haste, with James and John his brother, went to Jerusalem to notify the Divine Mary of Jesus’ Arrest, arriving at the Cenacle just after 4 a.m.. There, as we know, while all this was taking place, together with the Most Holy Virgin Mary were Mary Cleophas and Mary Salome, the three secret disciples Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea and Gamaliel, Martha and Mary Magdalen as well as the spouses Obed and Mary and their son John Mark.

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