Temptation
“Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation." He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, "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.”
Jesus asked His disciples to pray so that they ‘will not fall into temptation’. He followed His own advice as He Himself was subject to fall into temptation.
The danger was the desire to give up. In His humanity, Jesus wanted to give up on doing God’s Will for a moment. "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me…“ However He didn’t give up out of love for us! He decided to go through the whole Passion ordeal because there was no other way to cleanse us from all our sins. He had to give up His life on the Cross for us, sinners.
Sometimes we may feel like giving up on following Christ in order to go back into the world. The temptation to sin and to do our own thing can become so great that, if it weren’t for God’s grace, we’d just simply give up at times and decide to follow the ways of the world.
It’s very difficult to do God’s Will when we find ourselves running against the strong tide of this world – a world hostile to God and His ways. It would just be so much easier to just ‘go with the flow’ in the face of this world, anyhow.
No matter how tempting the world can be sometimes, let’s not give up on following the Lord and His ways. The world and its sins are really not worth it, neither what people think of us. If we persevere in the ways of the Lord, we shall reap great things for His glory! The Lord is so much better than anything the world can offer. Let’s resist, therefore through prayer.
Loneliness through being abandonned
“When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. "Why are you sleeping?" he asked them. "Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation."
How lonely Jesus must have felt, having to deal with all His pain by Himself! His friends had totally abandonned Him and had not brought Him any comfort and support whatsoever in His greatest time of need. So much so that God sent an angel to Jesus in order to strengthen Him.
How come is it that when we are suffering greatly that even our very closest friends abandon us? When they ought to be right there supporting us until things eventually get better, they just flee away from us instead!
Abandonnement from others and the subsequent loneliness is one of the most difficult realities of the Cross. In compensation for this painful loneliness, the Lord sends His angels to us as well, in order to strengthen us. The Comforter, that is, the Holy Spirit, also surrounds us with His sweet love in a most special way during those times.
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