“Could You Not Watch with Me for One Hour?”: The Relevance Today
As we enter Holy Week, let’s reflect on The First Sorrowful Mystery — Jesus’ Agony in the Garden. Let’s examine the specific verse where Jesus asks, “Could you not watch with me for one hour?” (Matthew 26:40). While not stated, we can assume that the disciples’ behavior frustrated Jesus. They fell asleep when Jesus asked them to stay with Him. This event differs from the other times when Jesus sought to pray alone, such as in Luke’s Gospel that says, “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16). Jesus desired his friends to remain with him in his desperate hour. While they wanted to (“the spirit was willing”), they could not because “the flesh was weak.”
We so often imitate the apostles in our response to Jesus’ request to pray with Him. We want to honor Jesus’ request, but we become busy with other responsibilities to respond to His call. This leads to a sense of complacency with our faith. We think that because God is capable of infinite mercy, we can ignore His call to honor Him and do His will. Too often, we confuse mercy with acceptance. Homilies barrage us with how loving and merciful God is. We learn how it’s okay to fail; even the apostles had their faults. But without the counterpoint that we need to ask for mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we can mistakenly believe God will accept however we choose to live.
This makes Jesus’ question even more relevant: “Could you not watch with me for one hour?” Jesus didn’t see the apostles asleep and think, “Oh well, no big deal. They’re tired.” He calls them out! He wakes them up to remind them of His desire to stay awake and pray with Him. Jesus hints at their untapped capacity, attainable through a more dedicated effort. He implies a displeasure with the apostles’ behavior. He gave them so much and asked so little in return. But they couldn’t see past their own wants, in this case, sleep, to honor Jesus’ request.
Holy Week: An Invitation to Give More to God
We often emulate the apostles. The Church calls upon us to engage in fasting, prayer, and almsgiving during Lent. As I reflect on my Lenten journey, I recognize moments when I did not fast or resist the temptation of a sweet treat. In hindsight, I envision Jesus asking me, “Could you not fast a little longer?” Or, “Did you really need that cookie?” “Why don’t you put down the phone and grab those Rosary beads or prayer book?” Jesus always reminds us that while He loves us, we can do more at loving Him.
Let us remember not to confuse mercy with acceptance. God does not approve when we do not honor Him or live according to His will. Jesus is not the proverbial “doormat” we can walk over or ignore and presume He’s fine with that relationship. We can’t treat God like some sort of beer-drinking acquaintance that doesn’t mind if we’re rude, flaky, selfish, and untrustworthy. We need to remember that God calls us into a special relationship with Him and that does not include ignoring or disrespecting Him.
The good news is that God is infinitely merciful and will forgive us WHEN WE SINCERLY ASK HIM TO. We have to realize when we’ve broken our relationship with Him through sin and repair it through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. God will forgive us however many times we ask. But we have to ask for God’s mercy, not presume it. As we enter Holy Week, God is asking a lot of us. He wants us there with Him on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday (every Sunday for that matter). Let’s not have Him approach us and ask, “Seriously? I know you have so much more to give.”