MEDITATION ON THE PASSION: Then He Saith To Them: My Soul Is Sorrowful Even Unto Death

CARPACCIO, Vittore 
Agony in the Garden
1502

Then he saith to them: My soul is sorrowful even unto death Mt.xxvi.

Let us weigh every word wisely: for he doth not say my soul is fearful, or I am weary of life, or my soul is doubtful, least he should seem to go to his passion rather against his will, then willingly:but he said (it is sorrowful) not only for the sundry causes of sorrow, but that thereby he might show that he was very man that suffered.

My soul he doth not say I am sorrowful, because his will rejoiced and was desirous to die, but my soul, that is my nature, which never moved his will.

Again, My soul that is, grief hath inwardly entered into my soul; lest perhaps you might think through the continual contemplation of his divine nature, that he felt no grief in his soul.

Even unto death that is, either because that sorrow continued until his death, and no longer, or else because it was so vehement that mans nature could endure no more without peril of death.

Pray unto our Lord that this his sorrow may bring life unto thy soul.

Fr. Francis Costerus S.J. 1616


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