Madeleine Stebbins
From the Mar/Apr 2011 Issue of Lay Witness Magazine
Andrea Mantegna painted this circa 1457 as one of the panels of the altarpiece of San Zeno in Verona, Italy. It is now replaced by a replica, since the original was removed by Napoleon and brought to Tours, France in 1797.
The mystery of Christ’s agony is described in the synoptic Gospels: He went into the garden of Gethsemane to pray, taking with Him Peter, James, and John, the very same privileged ones who were with Him on Mt. Tabor and who witnessed the Transfiguration. Seeing Christ in glory was meant to prepare them to see Christ inglorious, so as to strengthen their faith for the time of trial.
In this painting we see Christ beginning His passion. It starts with a profound mental anguish: “My soul is very sorrowful even unto death” (Mt. 26:38). He first suffered in His soul mental torments in solidarity with humanity, also no doubt to save it from its mental disturbance.
Many Saints and Blesseds, including Bl. John Henry Newman, have suggested that at that moment Christ saw in a vision all the sins of mankind from the beginning to the end of time, the offenses against God, the blasphemies, the ingratitude of creatures toward their Creator, the lusts, the pride and “sophistry of unbelief.”[1] He had to bear the sins of the whole world. It was this that caused “His sweat to become like great drops of blood, falling
down upon the ground” (Lk. 22:44). It was the beginning of the shedding of His blood for the salvation of the world.
We see Him here crying out, openmouthed with a groan coming from the depths of His soul, His hands raised in supplication. He, the eternal Son, takes on our nature to the point of making Himself, helpless, vulnerable.
His closest disciples who wanted to keep watch have fallen asleep, sprawling here in a rather unseemly fashion, expressing that “the flesh is weak.” Seeing however that their spirit was willing and that their great sorrow caused their fatigue, He did not condemn them. The grace of redemption will raise them from their weakness. But at the moment this weakness and this heedlessness by His beloved ones intensified His loneliness. At that moment it seems as if no one on earth is sharing His suffering.[2]
The great loneliness of Christ is depicted here. “Total loneliness . . . [is] what theology calls ‘hell.’”[3] Judas with his hostile forces are coming down the winding, devious path from Jerusalem on the left; the beautiful city on the hill takes on the aspect of a hard fortress, the barren rocky mountain on the right is harsh and insurmountable. Christ is truly in the bitter valley.
However in His loneliness there is one consolation: an angel from heaven comes to strengthen Him (Lk. 22:43). Christ prays, “Let this chalice pass from me. Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou willt” (Mt. 26:39). Mantegna pictures an angel bringing the chalice of suffering, thereby demonstrating firstly that it is indeed the Father’s will that Christ drink the chalice, and secondly, that a heavenly consolation comes with the chalice: it comes from the Father. Discernable is a bridge of union with the Father, whose love comes like a shaft of light indirectly through the presence of His messenger.
The tree in the foreground is split right down the middle, a symbol of creaturely brokenness after the Fall. It will be healed. The waters from a spring, symbol of lifegiving grace coming down from Jerusalem, fall on stones.
Even so, the whole landscape takes on an unearthly beauty. It is a transfigured landscape. His hour has come. The world is at the threshold of a momentous transformation. A new light is dawning. The first traces of the dawn from on high—“Oriens ex alto” (Lk. 1:78)—are seen on the horizon. Already the outskirts of the holy city are tinged by the distant light. The clouds are like angelic spirits illumined by that divine light, foretelling that Christ by His suffering is about to bring redemption.
[1] John Henry Newman, Discourse XVI, “The Mental Sufferings of Our Lord in His Passion” Discourses to Mixed Congregations, Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1919.
[2] Ibid. Mary “will be near Thee on the Cross, she is separated from Thee in the garden . . . her virgin ear may not take in . . . what now is in vision before Thee.”
[3] Cf. Pope Benedict XVI, Magnificat Missal, Nov. 2010, page 2.
Madeleine Stebbins is the wife of CUF founder H. Lyman Stebbins. She served as CUF president from 1981-84.
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