Luke 22:39-46
New Catholic Bible
The Passion
39 The Agony in the Garden.[a] Jesus then went forth and made his way, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40 When he reached the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41 After withdrawing from them about a stone’s throw, he knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me. Yet not my will but yours be done.”
43 [b]Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. 44 In his anguish, he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like great drops of blood falling on the ground.
45 When he rose from prayer and returned to the disciples, he found them sleeping, exhausted by grief. 46 He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Luke 22:39 Tempted to refuse the terrible and humiliating trial of the cross, Jesus struggles in prayer to accept the will of the Father. The divine aid that he receives, as once Elijah did (see 1 Ki 19:7-8), does not mitigate the tragedy of the moment. This passage remains one of the great texts on the distress of human beings in the face of their death. It is intended to be a lesson, as is emphasized, from its beginning to its end, by the repeated invitation to pray so as not to be the prey of a temptation that seems to be all-consuming.
- Luke 22:43 These two verses are not found in some early mss.
