Catholic Outlook Magazine | Lent & Easter | 2023 Issue

Looking Deeper
Cling to the rock
STORY BR MARK O'CONNOR FMS
As we prepare, once again, for the Easter
mysteries, the dramatic scene of Jesus’ Agony in
the Garden (Mark 14:32-52), is a rich source for
our prayer and meditation.
Each person (and maybe even our Church at times)
has to face their own ‘Agony in the Garden’ and there
is never any clear-cut rational way through these trials.
Often the best one can do is
to simply ‘cling to the rock’
like Jesus in Gethsemane
and trust despite our
emotional distress.
For it is in times of greatest humiliation that we come
to real and true depth of soul. When we feel shame
or powerlessness, or when we are being abused and
cannot defend ourselves, we are certainly vulnerable
to despair. But it is precisely through such humiliating
times that we can grow deeper in compassion,
graciousness and forgiveness, and not fall deeper
into hate, anger and revenge.
According to eminent Dominican biblical scholar
Jerome Murphy O’Connor, Mark the Evangelist, in his
Gospel account of the Agony in the Garden, is telling
us that Jesus really and fully ‘broke down’, before the
greatest crisis of his life.
After all, it is a human thing to have a mental
breakdown if you are about to be tortured to death!
This was no make-believe play-acting. Jesus was
‘falling apart’ emotionally.
Some Christians do not like the idea of Jesus having
a mental breakdown, of Him being ‘out of control’.
But personally, I find it a great consolation.
Our faith as Christians
challenges us to accept the
human frailty of Jesus, as
well as his divine nature.
It’s natural that we all fear pain and the prospect of
our own diminishment. We just do not want to think
about it. None of us – unless we are masochists –
welcomes suffering and death.
However, this acceptance of creaturehood, this
coming to peace with our human finiteness and
vulnerability, is such an important part of the ongoing
Easter journey that we must all undertake.
In the face of the Paschal mystery, as it lives out in
our own lives, the keywords are often to: 'let go'.
This Easter, let's ponder poet Mary Oliver's profound
advice, as each of us struggles to gracefully navigate
our own personal ‘Agony in the Garden’ – whatever
that may be…
To live in this world, you must
be able to do three things: to
love what is mortal; to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to
let it go, to let it go.
Br Mark O'Connor FMS is Vicar for Communications in the
Diocese of Parramatta.
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