The psychiatrist and anthropologist Massimo Recalcati (Milan, 1959) has written a magnificent work about the feelings of Jesus Christ in the prayer at the Garden of Gethsemane: “a night of silence and a night of prayer.” It is both a scientific and passionate composition, as all of his fine knowledge comes into play to delve into the feelings, affections, and thoughts of Jesus on that decisive night for the history of salvation.
Indeed, the Church Fathers, saints, and theologians have always agreed on Jesus' extreme obedience (Father, if it is possible, take this cup away from me) along with the utmost freedom of love for God and for humanity (but not my will, but yours be done): “the decision to go all the way is freedom and love.”
Moreover, Professor Recalcati’s fine analysis focuses on the comparison between the betrayal of Judas and the betrayal of Peter. The second is the result of weakness, fear of what others will say, the fragility of one who loves greatly but also sins greatly. The first is much harder to bear and forgive, as it is a betrayal born of deception and disappointment, deviating from the passionate love for Jesus Christ that all those men and women had, leading to frustration and disappointment: the real Messiah does not align with the one fabricated by Judas’ mind.
Therefore, the betrayals of Judas and Peter are a matter of trust: had Peter relied on the strength of Jesus, he would have been faithful. Recalcati tells us that what happened to Judas is similar to what happened to Eve: “both stopped seeing God as the one to whom they owe their lives and began to see Him as an obstacle to achieving triumph.”
Undoubtedly, Massimo Recalcati's insistence on the solitude, abandonment, and suffering of Christ as a man is due to the lack of supernatural meaning, and therefore, the failure to grasp the complicity between God the Father and God the Son in all moments of God's eternal existence.
In the development of the issue, he outlines three steps: Betrayal, anguish, solitude, and prayer. He begins by stating: “In the night of Gethsemane, the crucial experience for Jesus is the anguish of death. Until that moment, He had never experienced it. […] We must read Jesus' torment as ‘the torment of all human beings in the face of the inescapable appointment with their own death.’” And he adds: “The trembling of Jesus is not related to the loss of something in the world, but to His being in the world.” He concludes: “The sleep of the disciples is another form of betrayal.” To end: “They do not want to come into contact with the wound of the son abandoned by the Father.” The key to the issue is prayer, the immersion of the Son of God into God the Father and allowing oneself to be shaped to fulfill the loving design of God the Father, which is the salvation plan for humankind. Here, there is no silence of God, but an intra-Trinitarian dialogue.
José Carlos Martín de la Hoz