In the Garden With Jesus - a Lent Journey for TeensSample

Jesus’ life and death

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. - Luke 22:42-44

When Jesus is sweating blood in the garden and begging His Father to “take the cup” from Him, He has a choice. The choice isn’t to call on godly power to spare His life. The choice is rather: “How will I die?”

Of course, we know which decision Jesus made and in what way He died. He chose the path of forgiveness, love and mercy in the face of death. He is an example of the decision each of us will make at the end of our life.

Our culture rarely faces the reality of death. We rather distance ourselves. In spite of all the death and violence around us, few of us have seen someone’s death or touched a dead body to experience the “lifelessness” of death. People rarely die at home and funeral companies quickly remove the body of a loved one and embalm it, put make-up on the face and hands, dress it and set the body out to look as though the person is merely sleeping. This makes it harder for us to hold the cup of death and drink from it.

Ignatius of Loyola, the church father and philosopher, suggested an exercise to connect with the ephemerality of life: If you had to look back to this very moment of your life from your deathbed, what would you wish to have done differently? What matters to you in the long run? How would you want to live differently?

Prayer:

I ask for a deep consciousness of Your love and work in my life.