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The
Agony of Jesus
When Jesus left His disciples, I saw a
number of frightful figures surrounding Him in an ever-narrowing circle.
His sorrow and anguish of soul continued to increase, and He was
trembling all over when He entered the grotto to pray, like a wayworn
traveller hurriedly seeking shelter from a sudden storm, but the awful
visions pursued Him even there, and became more and more clear and
distinct. Alas! this small cavern appeared to contain the awful picture
of all the sins which had been or were to be committed from the fall of
Adam to the end of the world, and of the punishment which they deserved.
It was here, on Mount Olivet, that Adam and Eve took refuge when driven
out of Paradise to wander homeless on earth, and they had wept and
bewailed themselves in this very grotto. I felt that Jesus, in delivering Himself up
to Divine Justice in satisfaction for the sins of the world, caused His
divinity to return, in some sort, into the bosom of the Holy Trinity,
concentrated Himself, so to speak, in His pure, loving and innocent
humanity, and strong only in His ineffable love, gave it up to anguish
and suffering. He fell on His face, overwhelmed with unspeakable sorrow,
and all the sins of the world displayed themselves before Him, under
countless forms and in all their real deformity. He took them all upon
himself, and in His prayer offered His own adorable Person to the
justice of His Heavenly Father, in payment for so awful a debt. But
Satan, who was enthroned amid all these horrors, and even filled with
diabolical joy at the sight of them, let loose his fury against Jesus,
and displayed before the eyes of His soul increasingly awful visions, at
the same time addressing His adorable humanity in words such as these:
“Takest thou even this sin upon thyself? Art thou willing to bear its
penalty? Art thou prepared to satisfy for all these sins?”
At first Jesus looked calm, as He kneeled
down and prayed, but after
a time his soul became terrified at the sight of the innumerable crimes
of men, and of their ingratitude towards God, and His anguish was so
great that He trembled and shuddered as He exclaimed: “Father,
if it is possible, let this chalice pass from Me! Father, all things are
possible to Thee, remove this chalice from Me!” But the
next moment He added: “Nevertheless,
not my will but thine be done.” His will and that of His
Father were one, but now that His love had ordained that He should be
left to all the weakness of His human nature, He trembled at the
prospect of death. (...) When Jesus, unrelieved of all the weight of
His sufferings, returned to the grotto, He fell prostrate, with His face
on the ground and his arms extended, and prayed to His Eternal Father;
but His soul had to sustain a second interior combat, which lasted
three-quarters of an hour. Angels came and showed Him, in a series of
visions, all the sufferings that He was to endure in order to expiate
sin; how great was the beauty of man, the image of God, before the fall,
and how that beauty was changed and obliterated when sin entered the
world... They showed Him the satisfaction which He would have to offer
to Divine Justice, and how it would consist of a degree of suffering in
His soul and body which would comprehend all the sufferings due to the
concupiscence of all mankind, since the debt of the whole human race had
to be paid by that humanity which alone was sinless — the humanity of
the Son of God... No tongue can describe what anguish and what horror
overwhelmed the soul of Jesus at the sight of so terrible an expiation
— His sufferings were so great, indeed, that a bloody sweat issued
forth from all the pores of His sacred body... The soul of Jesus beheld all the future
sufferings of His Apostles, disciples, and friends; after which He saw
the primitive Church, numbering but few souls in her fold at first, and
then in proportion as her numbers increased, disturbed by heresies and
schisms breaking out among her children, who repeated the sin of Adam by
pride and disobedience. He saw the tepidity, malice, and corruption of
an infinite number of Christians, the lies and deceptions of proud
teachers, all the sacrileges of wicked priests, the fatal consequences
of each sin, and the abomination of desolation in the kingdom of God, in
the sanctuary of those ungrateful human beings whom He was about to
redeem with His blood at the cost of unspeakable sufferings. The
scandals of all ages, down to the present day and even to the end of the
world — every species of error, deception, mad fanaticism, obstinacy,
and malice — were displayed before His eyes... Bearing a prominent place in these mournful
visions which were beheld by the soul of Jesus, I saw Satan, who dragged
away and strangled a multitude of men redeemed by the blood of Christ
and sanctified by the unction of His Sacrament. Our Divine Saviour
beheld with bitterest anguish the ingratitude and corruption of the
Christians of the first and of all succeeding ages, even to the end of
the world, and during the whole of this time the voice of the tempter
was incessantly repeating: “Canst thou resolve to suffer for such
ungrateful reprobates?” while the various apparitions succeeded each
other with intense rapidity, and so violently weighed down and crushed
the soul of Jesus, that His sacred humanity was overwhelmed with
unspeakable anguish. The frightful visions of the future
ingratitude of the men whose debt to Divine Justice He was taking upon
Himself, continued to become more and more vivid and tremendous. Several
times I heard Him exclaim: “0 My Father, can I possibly suffer for so
ungrateful a race? 0 My Father, if this chalice may not pass from Me,
but I must drink it, Thy will be done!” I saw the blood flowing in large drops down
the pale face of our Saviour, His hair matted together, and His beard
bloody and entangled. After the vision which I have last described, He
fled, so to speak, out of the cave, and returned to His disciples. But
He tottered as He walked; His appearance was that of a man covered with
wounds and bending beneath a heavy burden, and He stumbled at every
step. When, by the light of the moon, they saw
Him standing before them, His face pale and bloody, and His hair in
disorder, their weary eyes did not at the first moment recognize Him,
for He was indescribably changed. He clasped His hands together, upon
which they arose and lovingly supported Him in their arms, and He told
them in sorrowful accents that the next day He should be put to death,
— that in one hour's time He should be seized, led before a tribunal,
maltreated, outraged, scourged, and finally put to a most cruel death.
He besought them to console His Mother, and also Magdalen. They made no
reply, for they knew not what to say, so greatly had His appearance and
language alarmed them, and they even thought His mind must be wandering.
I saw Jesus still praying in the grotto,
struggling against the repugnance to suffering which belonged to human
nature, and abandoning Himself wholly to the will of His Eternal Father.
Here the abyss opened before Him, and He had a vision of the first part
of Limbo. He saw Adam and Eve, the patriarchs, prophets, and just men,
the parents of His Mother, and John the Baptist, awaiting His arrival in
the lower world with such intense longing, that the sight strengthened
and gave fresh courage to His loving heart. His death was to open Heaven
to these captives — His death was to deliver them out of that prison
in which they were languishing in eager hope! When Jesus had, with deep
emotion, looked upon these saints of antiquity, angels presented to Him
all the bands of saints of future ages, who, joining their labours to
the merits of His Passion, were, through Him, to be united to His
Heavenly Father. Most beautiful and consoling was this vision, in which
He beheld salvation and sanctification flowing forth in ceaseless
streams from the fountain of redemption opened by His death... But these consoling visions faded away, and
the angels displayed before Him the scenes of His Passion quite close to
the earth, because it was near at hand. I beheld every scene distinctly
portrayed, from the kiss of Judas to the last words of Jesus on the
cross, and I saw in this single vision all that I see in my meditations
on the Passion. The treason of Judas, the flight of the disciples, the
insults which were offered our Lord before Annas and Caiphas, Peter's
denial, the tribunal of Pilate, Herod's mockery, the scourging and
crowning with thorns, the condemnation to death, the carrying of the
cross, the linen cloth presented by Veronica, the crucifixion, the
insults of the Pharisees, the sorrows of Mary, of Magdalen, and of John,
the wound of the lance in His side, after death — in one word, every
part of the Passion was shown to Him in the minutest detail. He accepted
all voluntarily, submitting to everything for the love of man. He saw
also and felt the sufferings endured at that moment by His Mother, whose
interior union with His agony was so entire that She had fainted in the
arms of Her two friends. This article was published in the March-April, 2004 issue of “Michael”. |
Anne
Catherine Emmerich