Saturday April 27, 2024
Theme: “The Christian facing death”
Text: Matthew 26:37-38
37. He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and he began to experience sadness and anguish. 38. Then he said to them: My soul is sad even to death; stay here, and watch with me.
Let's remember:
In French, the expression “to be sad until death” means to undergo extreme moral suffering leading to great spiritual despondency, and sometimes certain physical repercussions, but not necessarily immediate death. Synonyms:: extreme anguish, extreme distress, extreme torment. This explains why Jesus suffered hematidrosis (also called "blood sweat"). It is a very rare pathology whose clinical manifestation is the secretion of blood or a reddish liquid by the sweat glands. It would be favored by extreme anxiety and violent stress. The dictionary defines anxiety as a psychological and physical discomfort, born from the feeling of imminence of danger, characterized by a diffuse fear which can go as far as panic. Our Lord felt these feelings as every human would have felt them. Sadness combined with anxiety leads to psychic and psychological violence, to the point of even leading to a slow emotional death. The human side of Jesus meant that he could not ignore all human feelings. He endured the mental suffering preceding death. Like every human being, Jesus could not detach himself from it, because it was also the object of his mission, namely: to live the punishment, to live the suffering, to live the pain. Faced with death, the Lord gathered his lieutenants around an intimacy of prayer, He turned his gaze towards his father, who is ours; He teaches us the good attitude of seeking the face of the Father and remaining in his intimacy to better finish life on earth. Have a great Saturday. Amen.
Alain Louz.-
Comments