A silence is spreading through the house. Jesus is in the Garden.
He is weeping. He is praying to the Father. He is carrying me and every one of us in His heart and working to open up the depths of our freedom to the miracle of conversion as He prays, "Not my will, but thine be done."
Our hearts are asleep, like the disciples, and Jesus comes searching for our love.
God wants our love. God the Son, in His humanity, in His human heart, "needs" our love. He goes out to the disciples. I am always struck by that. He goes out to them, seeking their companionship.
God, in Christ, "needs help." He who is Infinite Mercy, in this mysterious moment, "needs" mercy from us.
That need of the suffering Christ is not far from us. For in His heart, He has taken to Himself and made His own the suffering of every person. So every person in need is Christ. And who is the person in need? The person who is with you right now.
Every person is in need. They need love. They need understanding. They need companionship on the road to their destiny. In them Christ seeks us. And our hearts are sleeping.
He understands. We are weak. But that same Compassion burns with the desire to wake us: "Watch and pray that you do not enter into temptation"--Watch and pray, seek the love of God, that you may not be tempted by distraction and indifference to miss the mystery of God coming to you in your life, seeking your love and pouring out His mercy, coming to you in the ordinary events and circumstances and persons that present opportunities for love, for giving yourself away, for opening yourself up to the eternal.
God longs to give mercy to us, and He longs for us to give mercy to Him in one another, so that the whole universe might be born anew in the image and the radiance of the Eternal Love that He is, and was, and ever shall be.
Dear Jesus, I sleep. Then I run away. Then I follow at a distance. Then I deny You out of fear. And You forgive me in Your mercy. Jesus, You know that, at least, I want to love You.
Let me stay with You.
