Catechism: Christ’s agony at Gethsemani

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612 The cup of the New Covenant, which Jesus anticipated when he offered himself at the Last Supper, is afterwards accepted by him from his Father’s hands in his agony in the garden at Gethsemani,434 making himself “obedient unto death”. Jesus prays: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. . .”435 Thus he expresses the horror that death represented for his human nature. Like ours, his human nature is destined for eternal life; but unlike ours, it is perfectly exempt from sin, the cause of death.436 Above all, his human nature has been assumed by the divine person of the “Author of life”, the “Living One”.437 By accepting in his human will that the Father’s will be done, he accepts his death as redemptive, for “he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.”438

434 Cf. Matthew 26:42; Luke 22:20.

435 Philippians 2:8; Matthew 26:39; cf. Hebrews 5:7-8.

436 Cf. Romans 5:12; Hebrews 4:15.

437 Cf. Acts 3:15; Revelation 1:17; John 1:4; 5:26.

438 2 Pt 224; cf. Matthew 26:42.