During his prayer in the Garden of Olives (cf. Mk 14:26ff.), Benedict XVI observes, "it seems that Jesus does not want to be alone". Unlike at other times, he now invites his three favorite disciples (Peter, James and John), the same ones he called to accompany him at the Transfiguration. And this is, according to the Pope, significant (cf. General Audience 1-II-2012). In what sense?

Although he will have to pray alone, Jesus wants these three disciples to remain in close relationship with him. It is "a request for solidarity at the moment when he feels death approaching, but it is above all a closeness in prayer, to express, in some way, attunement with him, at the moment when the Father's will is about to be completely fulfilled, and it is an invitation to each disciple to follow him on the way of the cross".

Jesus expresses himself, once again, in the language of the psalms: "My soul is sorrowful even unto death. Stay here and watch" (Mk 14:33, 34). He makes his own those feelings that other messengers of God have experienced; he feels fear and anguish, and "experiences the ultimate profound loneliness while God's plan is being carried out." Here, the Pope adds, "is summed up the whole horror of man before his own death, the certainty of its inexorability and the perception of the weight of evil that brushes against our lives."

Then he falls to the ground, expressing his obedience to the Father's will, his submission and withdrawal with full confidence, and asks Him, if possible, to pass from him that hour. "It is not only the fear and anguish of man in the face of death," observes Benedict XVI, "but the perturbation of the Son of God who sees the terrible burden of evil that he will have to take upon himself to overcome it, to deprive it of power.

It is the enormous weight of the sins of the world and of every person. "Here, He has also fought for me," writes the Pope in his book on Jesus (vol. II), also taking up the words that Pascal puts on the Lord's lips for us: "Those drops of blood, I have shed them for you". St. Paul had already said: "He loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20).

And, as in the previous catechesis , the Pope draws consequences (let us call them "lessons") for our prayer. Here is the first: we too must "bring before God our labors, the suffering of certain situations, of certain conference, the daily commitment to follow him, to be Christians, and also the weight of evil that we see in and around us, because he gives us hope, makes us feel his closeness, gives us a little light on the path of life". Lesson of hope.

Then Jesus continues his prayer: "Abba, Father! Everything is possible for you: take this chalice away from me! And here Benedict XVI underlines three revealing details: the Aramaic word used by the children to express their affection for their father(Abbà); the awareness of the Father's omnipotence; and, above all, that "the human will adheres completely to the divine will".

According to St. Maximus the Confessor, this yes of Jesus represents the answer and reparation for the "no" that Adam and Eve pronounced wanting to be free before God. Now, in Jesus, the human will is totally conformed to the divine will, and man recovers his full realization. "Thus," the Pope deduces, pointing out a second lesson of this prayer of Jesus, "Jesus tells us that only in conforming his own will to the divine will does the human being reach his true height, he becomes 'divine'; only by going out of himself, only in the 'yes' to God, is the desire of Adam, of all of us, to be completely free, fulfilled. Lesson in freedom.

Benedict XVI understands that "nowhere else in the Sacred Scripture do we look so deeply into the intimate mystery of Jesus as in the prayer on the Mount of Olives."(Jesus of Nazareth, II). This is especially evident in what refers to the depth of Jesus' filial prayer: his knowing and feeling himself to be the Son of God (cf. Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 543).

For this reason, he also stresses the importance of the Our Father prayer "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Mt. 6:10). The Pope explains: "In Jesus' prayer to the Father, on that terrible and wonderful night of Gethsemane, 'earth' became 'heaven'; the 'earth' of his human will, shaken by fear and anguish, was taken over by his divine will, so that God's will was fulfilled on earth".

This union of the human will with the divine will would constitute the third lesson of this most intimate prayer of Jesus, for us Christians (who belong to the Mystical Body of Christ). In the intimacy of our prayer, which is united to that of our Head (Christ), "we must learn to trust more in divine Providence, to ask God for the strength to go out of ourselves and renew our 'yes', to repeat 'thy will be done', to adapt our will to his"; even if sometimes this is not easy, as it was not easy for those three disciples, who were not able to keep vigil with him.

And the Pope concludes with proposal concerning this third lesson, which summarizes the previous ones: "Let us ask the Lord to be able to watch with him in prayer, to follow the will of God every day, even if he speaks of the Cross, to live in ever greater intimacy with the Lord, so as to bring to this 'earth' a little of God's 'heaven'". We can see here a lesson of solidarity, with Jesus and his "total Body" (the Church), precisely in prayer ("You have prepared a body for me": Heb. 10:5-7; cf. Ps. 40:7).

Lessons of hope, freedom and solidarity. Note well the depth of this solidarity. Intimacy with God (Father) in prayer, which we try to do united to the prayer of Christ, is what makes us capable of uniting, through love (that is, with the financial aid of the Holy Spirit), our will to the divine will. This vigil "with the Lord", therefore, summarizes the Trinitarian structure of Christian prayer (to the Father, through Christ in the Holy Spirit).

At the same time, this also suggests an intimate secret of "our" own prayer: in the image of Jesus' prayer and because of it, even if we sometimes feel alone, we are not alone: we are praying "with Him" and with the Christians who have formed, form and will form part of the whole Church. And even more. In our poor effort to deal personally with God, and even if we do not realize it, through Jesus we are mysteriously united to all the people who in some way have prayed, pray or will pray; because all of them are called to the Mystery of the Church, which prays in and with us, for the needs of each one of us and of the world. Christian prayer is prayer in the family of God.

We can already see that Christian prayer is at the antipodes of all "intimism" and "individualism": it opens us to God and to those around us, it breaks down subjectivism and denounces our conformism, and it impels us to commit ourselves to the good. It is, at the same time, staff and in solidarity.