Wednesday after Laetare + Matthew 26:36-75 + March 14, 2018
In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. As the calendar moves us closer to Easter we begin to contemplate the sufferings of Christ. Those sufferings begin on the night in which He was betrayed. After Jesus celebrates the Passover with His disciples, the go the Mount of Olives, to a garden called Gethsemane. He leaves behind the disciples except for Peter, James, and John, the same men He took with Him to witness His transfiguration. On Mount Tabor they saw Jesus’ glory and hear God the Father’s witness, “ This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him ” (Matthew 17:5). Instead of seeing a glorious Christ they see a sorrowful Christ. They see “ a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief ” (Isaiah 53:3). Christ suffers this intense agony of soul because, as true God, He knows what lies ahead of Him and yet, as true man, He wishes to avoid suffering and death as any man would. So He prays, “ O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pa