During Lent, one of my favorite mysteries to meditate on is Jesus’ agony in the garden. My favorite reflection on this mystery, considers that the source and summit of Jesus’ agony wasn’t dreading the suffering that was to come, rather, it was an intense pain realizing that He was giving the greatest sacrifice possible and yet many people would still reject Him. Jesus died for you and for me, but we still have the free will to reject this gift of eternal life in Heaven, and many do.
 
Our prayer can often bring us a similar agony, especially our prayers for the souls of those we care about. We pray often not seeing the full fruit of our prayers. We wait knowing that despite all our fasting and sacrifice, those we pray for still have free will and can still turn away from God. It is a painful reminder, and yet in union with Jesus’ suffering we are not alone. With Jesus, we still have hope.
 
As the angel came to comfort the Lord in His agony, we also have this comfort. Our agony may be that we never see in this life all that our prayers have done, but we still have to believe, with Jesus, that this suffering is well worth it. Especially since we don’t see the whole big picture. The people we pray for may reject Jesus in this life, but it could be at the moment of their death and judgement that they are filled with God’s grace and mercy to benefit from all we have asked God for. After all, when we are praying for the soul of another, we know God’s will is also perfectly in line with our own.
 
It isn’t easy to bear this kind of patient suffering. In fact, it can be far more painful than watching someone suffer from a disease, because our spiritual life is forever. No matter what the prayer, it is painful to feel abandoned and alone. We are allowed to be upset with God and sad at what appears to be His lack of response, but we should never allow that to open us to despair or turning away from our Lord and Savior. No matter what our agony looks like, we must always have hope. We must always turn to Jesus who alone knows the greatness of this pain.
 
This Lent, let us never cease to pray for one another. When Jesus suffered and died, all was not lost, even when people rejected this sacrifice. There was still you and I there to comfort Him and remind Him of all that His sacrifice would accomplish. It is important to remember that the highest good we can pray for is for the eternal life of another, and this prayer can be answered in their final breath. We have no reason to despair when our prayers feel fruitless. We have reason to hope and lean closer to the Lord. We can offer up our suffering for the very person we are praying for and bring about an even greater prayer for their good. Ultimately, God loves every person far more than we ever could. His heart is united with ours and knowing that, we have no reason to fear.