The Acceptable Time and the Prayer in Gethsemane
… like us, and entered the measure of self-emptying. He addresses the chosen and says: “In an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you” (Isaiah 49:8). Christ and His mystery were foreknown before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20), but they shone forth at the times the Sovereign willed, the times at which He has helped us; and the time of the incarnation he calls a day of salvation. So too, somewhere, the divine Paul says: “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). And the prophet David sings and says: “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us exult and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).
“And I have given you as a covenant to the nations, to establish the earth and to inherit the inheritance of the desert, saying to those in bonds, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ And in all their ways they will be fed, and in all the paths will be their pasture. They will not hunger or thirst, nor will the burning heat or the sun strike them; but He who has mercy on them will comfort them, and will lead them by springs of water. And I will make every mountain a road, and every path a pasture for them. Behold, these come from afar, these from the north, and these from the sea, and others from the land of the Persians” (Isaiah 49:8–12).
Some of the earlier interpreters decided to make the beginning of the present chapter the words: “Thus says the Lord: In an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you” (Isaiah 49:8). And they say that these words were spoken by God the Father to Christ, the Savior of us all. They weave in besides a meaning of this kind. He prayed, they say, before the precious cross, saying: “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39); and He was not heard, for He drank it. But since He trampled on death with the Father’s help, the words “In an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you” were of necessity said to Him.
But this account seems to me to be sorely lacking in plausibility. For He knew that He had to drink the cup, and that the world under heaven could not come to be saved except through the death of His flesh and the resurrection from the dead. Even so, He went through the form of the prayer as a carefully chosen step in the divine plan, so that His begging to be spared the Passion might accuse the bloodguilt of the Jews. For how would Israel have become liable to the charges of impiety against Him, if suffering had not been against His will because of its shame? Yet even so it became His will, both to take away sin from the world and to remake our state into the newness of a holy life (compare Romans 6:4). For in this way one will understand also His saying: “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will …” (John 6:38).
Greek
καθ' ἡμᾶς, καὶ τὸ τῆς κενώ- σεως ὑπέδυ μέτρον. Προσδιαλέγεται δὲ τοῖς ἐξειλε- γμένοις, καί φησιν, ὅτι Καιρῷ δεκτῷ ἐπήκουσά σου, καὶ ἐν ἡμέρᾳ σωτηρίας ἐβοήθησά σοι. Προέγνωστο μὲν πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου Χριστὸς, καὶ τὸ αὐτοῦ μυστήριον· ἐπέλαμψε δὲ κατὰ καιροὺς οὓς ἤθελεν ὁ ∆υνάστης, καθ' οὓς ἡμῖν βεβοήθηκε, καὶ τὸν τῆς ἐν- ανθρωπήσεως καιρὸν, σωτηρίας ἡμέραν εἶναί φησιν. Οὕτω γάρ που καὶ ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος· "6Ἰδοὺ νῦν,"6 ‹70.1056› φησὶ, "6καιρὸς εὐπρόσδεκτος, ἰδοὺ νῦν ἡμέρα σωτη- ρίας."6 Ψάλλει δὲ καὶ ὁ προφήτης ∆αβὶδ, καί φησιν· "6Αὕτη ἡ ἡμέρα ἢν ἐποίησεν ὁ Κύριος, ἀγαλλιασώμεθα, καὶ εὐφρανθῶμεν ἐν αὐτῇ."6 9Καὶ ἔδωκά σε εἰς διαθήκην ἐθνῶν, 388 τοῦ κατα- στῆσαι τὴν γῆν, καὶ κληρονομῆσαι κληρονομίαν ἐρήμου, λέγοντα τοῖς ἐν δεσμοῖς· Ἐξέλθετε· καὶ τοῖς ἐν τῷ σκότει, Ἀνακαλύφθητε. Καὶ ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτῶν βοσκηθήσονται, καὶ ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ὁδοῖς ἡ νομὴ αὐτῶν. Οὐ πεινάσουσιν, οὐδὲ διψήσουσιν, οὐδὲ πατάξει αὐτοὺς καύσων, οὐδὲ ὁ ἥλιος· ἀλλ' ὁ ἐλεῶν αὐτοὺς παρακαλέσει, καὶ διὰ πηγῶν ὑδάτων ἄξει αὐτούς. Καὶ θήσω πᾶν ὄρος εἰς ὁδὸν, καὶ πᾶσαν τρίβον εἰς βόσκημα αὐτοῖς. Ἰδοὺ οὗτοι πόῤῥωθεν ἔρχονται. Οὗτοι ἀπὸ βοῤῥᾶ, καὶ οὗτοι ἀπὸ θαλάσσης, ἄλλοι δὲ ἐκ γῆς Περσῶν.9 Ἔδοξέ τισι τῶν προλαβόντων ἐξηγητῶν ἀρχὴν τοῦ προκειμένου κεφαλαίου ποιήσασθαι. Οὕτω λέγει Κύ- ριος· Καιρῷ δεκτῷ ἐπήκουσά σου, καὶ ἐν ἡμέρᾳ σω- τηρίας ἐβοήθησά σοι. Καί φασιν εἰρῆσθαι ταυτὶ παρὰ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρὸς τῷ πάντων ἡμῶν Σωτῆρι Χριστῷ. Προσεξυφαίνουσι δὲ, καὶ τοιόνδε τινὰ νοῦν. Ηὔξατο μὲν γὰρ, φησὶ, πρὸ τοῦ τιμίου σταυροῦ, λέγων· "6Πάτερ, εἰ δυνατὸν, παρελθέτω ἀπ' ἐμοῦ τὸ ποτήριον τοῦτο·"6 καὶ οὐκ ἠκούσθη, πέπωκε γὰρ αὐτό. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ πεπάτηκε τὸν θάνατον ἀντιλαμβανομένου τοῦ Πα- τρὸς, εἴρηται πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀναγκαίως τὸ, Καιρῷ δεκτῷ ἐπήκουσά σου, καὶ ἐν ἡμέρᾳ σωτηρίας ἐβοη- θησά σοι. ∆οκεῖ δέ μοι πολὺ τὸ εὐπίθανον ἀῤῥωστεῖν ὁ λόγος. Καίτοι γὰρ εἰδὼς ὅτι χρὴ πιεῖν τὸ ποτήριον, καὶ οὐκ ἂν ἐξέλθοι τὸ διασωθῆναι δύνασθαι τὴν ὑπ' οὐρανὸν, πλὴν ὅτι διὰ τοῦ θανάτου τῆς σαρκὸς αὐ- τοῦ, καὶ τῆς ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀναστάσεως οἰκονομικώτατα λίαν τὸ τῆς προσευχῆς ἐπράττετο σχῆμα, ἵνα τοῦ πάθους ἡ παραίτησις τῆς τῶν Ἰουδαίων μιαιφονίας κατηγορῇ· ἐπεὶ τίνα τρόπον τοῖς τῆς εἰς αὐτὸν δυσ- σεβείας ἐγκλήμασιν ἔνοχος γέγονεν ὁ Ἰσραὴλ, εἰ μὴ ἀβούλητον ἦν αὐτῷ τὸ παθεῖν διά τοι τὸ δυσκλεές; πλὴν, καὶ οὕτω γέγονε θελητὸν, καὶ ἀποστῆσαι τοῦ κόσμου τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, καὶ ἀναμορφῶσαι τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς, εἰς καινότητα ζωῆς ἁγίας. Συνιεὶς γὰρ οὕτω καὶ τὸ εἰρημένον παρ' αὐτοῦ, ὅτι "6Καταβέβηκα ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, οὐχ ἵνα ποιῶ τὸ θέλημα τὸ ἐμὸν, ἀλλὰ τὸ θέλημ