The Heavenly Prayer in Gethsemane and on Earth
Prayer is about actualizing heaven in a place that is often too much like hell. Who better embodies the reality of God than God as God actually is: Father, Son, and Spirit? (If I could do a sign of the cross here in text I would do it now.) But here’s an example often that trips up people: the prayers of Jesus in the Bible, like the one fateful one in the garden of Gethsemane. The naive may perceive Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane as a human reaching out to a distant God. However, this overlooks the reality that the meaning of the text was designed and canonized to reflect: a Son of God, indeed God from God, light from light. This very notion is deeply embedded in the prayers we see in Christ. As we shall see, perhaps all prayer is the glory of God incarnating, if only by participation, it is incarnation nonetheless. Not because of who we are, but because Christ’s prayers are always already the incarnation of heaven on earth. Let us reflect more deeply here.
“Glory be to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.” In this prayer, we voice our awe at the boundless glory of God, whose very nature is resplendent with transcendence that exceeds all boundaries. If, in this God, all transcendent things are actual and all actual things transcend, then in the assumption of a human nature, everything is embodied in Christ’s prayer life, and the entirety of existence is fully assumed. God is a world without end, and His prayer is a continuous rupture to a world that all too often concludes not with heaven’s riches but with hell’s wretched violence.
The Glory Be prayer demonstrates that in His endless, eternal world, the Son shares a relationship that resounds throughout all realms, reaching far beyond our common misconceptions and fears. While we are asleep, He is recreating the world in its true image. It is not a case of God praying to Himself, nor is Jesus separate from God because He prays. Rather, as the Son of God, true God from true God, begotten not made, He continually manifests an unceasing openness to His Father. The reality of a world without end is being actualized here and now, as the transcendent divine presence permeates our present reality, bringing forth transformation and eternal meaning. In the beginning, here in Gethsemane, is God, was God, and ever shall be God. God created in a Garden and has never stopped.
Transcendence, in its truest sense, involves overcoming worldly limitations and ushering in a realm where every quality and capacity inherent to God is fully realized and fulfilled. It is through this wondrous transcendence that the infinite meaning and purpose of God pierce the veil of meaninglessness and confront the manifold evils afflicting our world. The prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane serves as a poignant example of the glory of God being actualized even amidst darkness, shining forth with radiant hope and redemptive power.
As we offer our heartfelt “Amen,” we join the eternal chorus of praise, acknowledging that the glory of God, the world without end, illuminates our lives and echoes through the ages. It is an everlasting manifestation of divine love and grace, guiding us through the depths of suffering, transforming our world, and leading us into the embrace of eternity.
May Christ who harmonizes the will of humanity with his actualize us into a transcendence beyond our frail human condition, heal us, and save us. In the blessed Trinity may we pray to have their will be done in us, deeply beyond our ignorance and into our very nature as it is theirs, one and forever.
Amen.
