tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7853204965986587589.post6110240457111256262..comments2024-03-17T22:48:00.427+08:00Comments on Reflections and Ruminations: Our greatest gift is given away, not taken from us.Fr Luke Fonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079016104331055895noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7853204965986587589.post-65316194793538779692011-04-12T09:41:40.268+08:002011-04-12T09:41:40.268+08:00To get us into the Garden metaphor, you asked wh...To get us into the Garden metaphor, you asked why the agony was in the garden and not anywhere else and concluded that, that affairs of the heart are ideally pursued in the garden-a meeting place, tryst for lovers....a place to linger & tarry awhile ? However, from the later development of the talk & again here in your blog, I feel that the passion of Christ started not on Good Friday but here in the Garden , where the garden of one’s heart can also be mottled with shady, gray and even dark areas of nettles & briars, where fear lurks in the shadows. ... and to plunge unflinchingly into it calls for great courage and a firm decision to trust in the power of love to bring Him up again. It gives insight to - ..... “There is no hope beyond the grave that doesn’t plunge its roots into the depths of the abyss....Only those who have the courage to ‘’descend into hell’’ can talk about ‘’heaven ‘’ and in that way try to snatch a whole life from the captivity of death...’’ ( Dremermann) <br /><br />When I reflect on what you’ve said & written, I sensed that somehow even when visited by grief & suffering, God still wants to depend on our decisions.......for by exercising our free will to choose - we make our sacrifices into ‘pure gifts ‘ . The purity of our gift ( unadulterated - ‘‘not because of a duty, not because one has no choice ......’’ like you said) somehow has great value in the eyes of God- perhaps this is the purity of heart, the holiness that is so highly esteemed and sought after by us all ?<br />God bless<br />tessaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7853204965986587589.post-55193287882472146732011-04-11T15:12:29.670+08:002011-04-11T15:12:29.670+08:00Thank you for your talk at IHM last Friday. In our...Thank you for your talk at IHM last Friday. In our faith, we have heard many times about redemptive suffering and the need for the ability to see God in our sufferings. Often too are we asked to identify our sufferings with Christ on the Cross. <br /><br />Seldom, if any, are we asked to ponder upon the Agony in the Garden. Of how, in the garden our Lord, Jesus Christ, prepares for his sufferings that are to come, when he begins to deplete himself and to completely surrender to his father’s will. It is the "downwards" Christ who reaches deep into the sorrows and sufferings humanity to save us. <br /><br />Your talk was poignant to me as one who is embarking on a long road with a mother who is gravely ill. Have I spent sufficient time in the Garden of Agony with Jesus before I step out and partake in the Passion of Christ? Because if I have, I know the angels would come and wait on me and give me the strength and courage.Garden9noreply@blogger.com