[During his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane,] when he returned to his disciples he found them asleep. He said to Peter, "So you could not keep watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Withdrawing a second time, he prayed again, "My Father, if it is possible that this cup pass without my drinking it, your will be done!" Then he returned once more and found them asleep, for they could not keep their eyes open. He left them and withdrew again and prayed a third time, saying the same thing. Then he returned to his disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Behold, the hour is at hand when the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners. Get up, let us go. Look, my betrayer is at hand." 

Alzheimer's disease is one of the most difficult sicknesses in our society today. When a movie is presented with the disease as its center consideration, it must be treated with the greatest care. The movie "Away From Her" does. Fiona and Grant Anderson had been married for more that forty years, mostly happy despite some problems along the way. They had the beauty in old age that they had in youth. Everything seemed to be going well--a beautiful cottage, the beauty of the Canadian North, comfortable living. Then it became evident that Fiona had the beginnings of Alzheimer's, and their lives changed. Nothing of what they had could help their situation. Fiona convinced Grant in her lucid moments that she must be placed in an institution. The pain that Grant felt was a pain that would never go away, and what made it even more poignant was that he understood that it would never cease. There is no greater pain in our world than one that is always present, no matter what happens. As someone described Grant in the movie, he was "a man with a broken heart, broken in a thousand pieces."    

The Christian perspective regarding pain is very different from the way most people look at pain. It is the perspective of the "spirit" as Jesus describes to his Apostles--"the spirit is willing"--but our flesh does not want to submit to the spirit. Some human pain can never be cured, and usually turns out to be the most difficult situations of our lives--the Alzheimer's patient, the person with incurable cancer, the paraplegic man or woman, the person who can at most become a little better, but never fully function again, and so forth. The pain is often unbearable, but for the Christian, if nothing can be done about it, then we allow the spirit to take over, and submit to God, saying "your will be done." It is the ultimate human sacrifice.

It is exactly what Jesus felt in his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. There, we see Jesus' humanity more than any other place in the Gospels. As a human being, he wanted with all of his heart to prevent the pain, but he could not. And so, he allowed the spirit to take over in his life, and submitted to the will of his Father. "Get up," he told his sleeping disciples, "let us go," that is, let us give ourselves to the will of God.

It is not easy, of course. Some never have to face it, and that in itself is a difficult thing to understand for the human being who must face it. His or her questions revolve around the questions of "why me?", "why doesn't another have the same pain?", "how can they have such a good life, and mine is so painful?"

The only answer can be with an understanding of what Jesus calls the "spirit." The only answer is in faith. We believe that there is something else after this life. This is not the end. In fact, life will never end, and our experience after this difficult life is only happiness, in fact, eternal happiness. Such is our faith, such is our hope as we turn to God, and say, "let us go--your will be done."                  

THOUGHT
 
PRAYER

Good and gracious God, pain often accompanies our human lives, and at times, pain that never ceases while we live on this earth. Give us the grace to understand that no matter what the pain, we have your promise of eternal life when there will no longer be any pain. Be with us, we pray. 

Questions, comments? Let me know. Email Fr. Mike

©2007 Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America