FROM GETHSEMANE TO THE RESURRECTION: A LOOK AT ST. FRANCIS
Dear friends of the Garden of the Lord,
May the Lord give you peace!
The feast of the Resurrection of the Lord is the heart of the Christian faith. In it the Church proclaims that death did not have the last word and that the new life of the risen Christ illuminates the whole history of mankind. As the apostle states: “If Christ has not risen, your faith is in vain” (1 Cor 15:14).
However the light of Easter cannot be fully understood without passing through the darkness of Gethsemane, the place of agony, prayer and total surrender to the will of the Father. In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus lives one of the deepest moments of the mystery of redemption. The Gospel tells: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me! Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine” (Luke 22:42). And again: “In his anguish he prayed even more earnestly, and his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood” (Luke 22:44).
Here the Son of God experiences human anguish in the face of suffering and death, but at the same time manifests his full trust in the Father. In this act of obedience and love, the victory of the Resurrection is already being prepared. Gethsemane thus becomes the threshold of Easter: the place where Christ's faithful love begins to transform the night of grief into the promise of new life.
This perspective finds particular resonance in the writings of St. Francis of Assisi, who contemplated with extraordinary depth the mystery of Christ's humility and passion. In his Admonitions he invites believers to look with amazement at the humility of the Son of God: “Behold, every day he humbles himself, as when from the royal seat he descended into the womb of the Virgin; every day he comes to us in appearance humble” (FF 144).
For the saint of Assisi, the path of glory always passes through humility and the cross. Contemplating the suffering Christ he exclaims in the Praises of the Most High God: “You are holy, Lord God alone, who works wonderful things; you are strong, you are great, you are most high, you are almighty king” (FF 261).
For Francis, Gethsemane represents the moment when Christ gives himself totally for man. He contemplates Jesus not only as the glorious Lord, but above all as one who lowers himself and surrenders himself into the hands of men. For this reason, in the Letter to the whole Order he invites the friars to fix their gaze on this mystery: “Therefore, none of us hold back for ourselves, so that he who offers himself totally to us may totally welcome us” (FF 221).
This contemplation leads to Paschal joy, because it is precisely in humiliation and total offering that the power of divine love is manifested. The Resurrection is indeed the Father's response to the obedient love of the Son. As the Gospels proclaim on Easter morning: “Why do you seek from among the dead the one who is alive? He is not here, he is risen” (Luke 24:5-6).
An invitation to personal participation in this mystery also emerges in the Franciscan writings. Francis does not look at passion and resurrection as distant events, but as a reality that must transform the life of the believer.
By following Christ in prayer, humility and confident abandonment, the Christian spiritually enters the path that leads from Gethsemane to Easter. For this reason, franciscan spirituality preserves with particular devotion the living memory of the Lord's passion.
Gethsemane, with its ancient olive trees and the silence of the night, thus becomes a place to learn trust and abandonment; Easter reveals that every night lived with Christ is destined to be transformed into light.
In the light of the writings of St. Francis of Assisi, the mystery of Gethsemane and that of the Resurrection appear inseparable. The agony of the garden is not only the prelude to the cross but also the hidden dawn of Easter. Where Christ said his “yes” to the Father in sorrow, there sprouted the new life that the Church celebrates in the joy of the Resurrection: “If we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him” (Rom 6:8).
Happy Easter everyone!
Be blessed from the Garden of the Lord.
