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In illud: Pater si possibile est

On "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me." On Great Friday.

61.751 The teachers of the Church are not unlike a child-loving mother, enduring all labor and toil for the rearing of her dearest children. For just as she, offering her breast, provides the tireless nourishment of milk to her beloved, so also the teacher of the Church, putting forth the teat of the intellect to the children of the Church, with longing of soul exhorts them to draw the milk of the word. And just as a mother, after the period of rearing from milk, also breaks the hard-to-crumble bread, and having seasoned vegetable foods with flavorings, and having softened them with fire, becomes a servant of the life of her own children; in the same way also the teacher, after the instruction of the divine oracles, and as it were after the milk-feeding, and having broken the hard-to-interpret bread of the word with the sword of the spirit, and having gathered the varied and different interpretations and scriptural contemplations into one mixture of teaching, imparts the tasty word to the children nourished by him.

Wherefore we too, beloved, having in the preceding days fed you milk with simple words, let us now proceed to the contemplation of doctrines, with the Holy Spirit seasoning for you the word of teaching to be tasty. And the bread of the word set before us on the table of the Scriptures is this: Why does our Lord Jesus Christ, having come to undertake suffering and death for the life of all, say when he came to the renowned cross: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. For many, not understanding the purpose of wisdom, and not having attended to the hidden treasure in the saying, accuse him of cowardice.

But come, let us too, beloved, for the time being converse with him as infants, that we may convey his thoughts to us as infants. Let us say then to him, not as perfect, but as infants: For what reason, Lord, having come to suffer for us, having come to be crucified, are you afraid and do you pray, saying: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me? If you emptied yourself, taking the form of a servant, with no one compelling you, why now do you beseech another and say: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass? And yet you were constrained and hastened to drink this cup. For you said, I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until I drink it? and being constrained and hastening to drink it, you refuse and say: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass. For were you ignorant that you were about to endure death for us? And yet you said that: The Son of man must be delivered up and be crucified and on the third day rise again. Why then, having come near to the cross, do you refuse and say: If it is possible, let this cup pass? And if you wanted this, why did you rebuke your disciple Peter who was hindering you? for you said, The Son of man must be crucified and buried and on the third day rise again. And Peter said: Be it far from you, Lord; this shall not be to you; to whom, being indignant, you said, 61.752 Get behind me, Satan; you are a stumbling block to me, for you do not mind the things of God, but the things of men.

If then you rebuked him then, as one speaking human things, why now do you seek what he then was forbidding, and you say: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass?

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In illud: Pater si possibile est

Εἰς τὸ, Πάτερ, εἰ δυνατὸν, τὸ ποτήριον τοῦτο παρελθέτω ἀπ' ἐμοῦ. Τῇ μεγάλῃ Παρασκευῇ.

61.751 Οὐδὲν ἀπεοίκασιν οἱ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας διδάσκαλοι μητρὶ φιλοτέκνῳ, πάντα

πόνον καὶ κάματον ὑπομενούσῃ διὰ τὴν τῶν φιλτάτων τέκνων ἀνατροφήν. Ὡς γὰρ ἐκείνη τὸν μασθὸν προΐσχουσα, τὴν τοῦ γάλακτος ἀκάματον τροφὴν τῷ φιλτάτῳ παρέχει, ὡσαύτως καὶ ὁ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας διδάσκαλος τὴν θηλὴν τῆς διανοίας προβαλλόμενος τοῖς παισὶ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας, πόθῳ ψυχῆς ὑφέλκειν τὸ γάλα τοῦ λόγου παρακαλεῖ. Καὶ ὥσπερ ἡ μήτηρ μετὰ τὴν ἐκ τοῦ γάλακτος ἀνατροφῆς διαγωγὴν, καὶ τὸν δύσθρυπτον ἄρτον διαλύει, καὶ τὰ λαχανικὰ βρώματα ἀρτύμασι νοστήσασα, καὶ πυρὶ περιλειώσασα, ὑπηρέτις τῆς ζωῆς τῶν οἰκείων τέκνων γίνεται· τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ ὁ διδάσκαλος μετὰ τὴν κατήχησιν τῶν θείων λογίων, καὶ οἱονεὶ μετὰ τὴν γαλακτοτροφίαν, καὶ τὸν δυσερμήνευτον ἄρτον τοῦ λόγου τῇ μαχαίρᾳ τοῦ πνεύματος διαλύσας, καὶ τῶν ποικίλων καὶ διαφόρων ἑρμηνειῶν καὶ θεωριῶν Γραφικῶν εἰς μίαν κρᾶσιν διδασκαλίας συναγαγὼν, νόστιμον τὸν λόγον τοῖς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ τρεφομένοις παισὶ μεταδίδωσι.

∆ιὸ δὴ καὶ ἡμεῖς, ἀγαπητοὶ, ἐν ταῖς προλαβούσαις ἡμέραις τοῖς εὐθυλύτοις λόγοις ὑμᾶς γαλακτοτροφήσαντες, νῦν πρὸς διδαγμάτων θεωρίαν ἄγωμεν, τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος νόστιμον ὑμῖν τὸν λόγον τῆς διδασκαλίας ἀρτύοντος. Ἔστι δὲ ἡμῖν προκείμενος ἐπὶ τῆς τῶν Γραφῶν τραπέζης, ὁ ἄρτος τοῦ λόγου τοιοῦτος· ∆ιὰ τί ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς ὑπὲρ τῆς πάντων ζωῆς ἐληλυθὼς ἀναδέξασθαι τὸ παθεῖν καὶ θανεῖν, ἐλθὼν ἐπὶ τὸν ἀοίδιμον σταυρὸν λέγει· Πάτερ, εἰ δυνατὸν, τὸ ποτήριον τοῦτο παρελθέτω ἀπ' ἐμοῦ. Πολλοὶ γὰρ μὴ νοήσαντες τὸν σκοπὸν τῆς σοφίας, καὶ τὸν κεκρυμμένον θησαυρὸν ἐν τῷ ῥήματι, μὴ προσεσχηκότες, δειλίας αὐτοῦ καταγγέλλουσιν.

Ἀλλὰ δεῦρο καὶ ἡμεῖς, ἀγαπητοὶ, τέως πρὸς αὐτὸν, ὥσπερ νήπιοι διαλεχθῶμεν, ἵνα τὰ ὑπ' ἐκείνου ἡμῖν νοήματα ὡς νηπίοις διαπορθμεύσωμεν. Εἴπωμεν τοίνυν πρὸς αὐτὸν, οὐχ ὥσπερ τέλειοι, ἀλλ' ὡς νήπιοι· Τίνος ἕνεκεν, Κύριε, ἐλθὼν τοῦ παθεῖν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, ἐλθὼν τοῦ σταυρωθῆναι, δειλιᾷς καὶ εὔχῃ λέγων· Πάτερ, εἰ δυνατὸν, τὸ ποτήριον τοῦτο παρελθέτω ἀπ' ἐμοῦ; Εἰ ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσας μορφὴν δούλου λαβὼν, μηδενός σε ἀναγκάσαντος, τί νῦν ἄλλον ἀξιοῖς καὶ λέγεις· Πάτερ, εἰ δυνατὸν, τὸ ποτήριον τοῦτο παρελθέτω; Καὶ μὴν συνείχου καὶ ἔσπευδες τοῦ πιεῖν τὸ ποτήριον τοῦτο. Ἔλεγες γὰρ, Βάπτισμα ἔχω βαπτισθῆναι· καὶ πῶς συνέχομαι, ἕως οὗ πίω αὐτό; καὶ ὁ συνεχόμενος καὶ σπεύδων τοῦ πιεῖν αὐτὸ, παραιτεῖς καὶ λέγεις· Πάτερ, εἰ δυνατὸν, τὸ ποτήριον τοῦτο παρελθέτω. Μὴ γὰρ ἠγνόεις, ὅτι ἤμελλες ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν θάνατον ὑπομένειν; Καὶ μὴν σὺ ἔλεγες, ὅτι· ∆εῖ τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου παραδοθῆναι καὶ σταυρωθῆναι καὶ τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἀναστῆναι. Τί οὖν ἐλθὼν ἐγγὺς τοῦ σταυροῦ παραιτῇ καὶ λέγεις· Εἰ δυνατὸν, τὸ ποτήριον τοῦτο παρελθέτω; Καὶ εἰ τοῦτο ἐβούλου, τί τῷ σῷ μαθητῇ Πέτρῳ κωλύοντί σε ἐπετίμησας; ἔλεγες γὰρ, ∆εῖ τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου σταυρωθῆναι καὶ ταφῆναι καὶ τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἀναστῆναι. Ἔλεγε δὲ καὶ Πέτρος· Ἵλεώς σοι, Κύριε, οὐ μὴ ἔσται σοι τοῦτο· πρὸς ὃν ἀγανακτήσας ἔφης, 61.752 Ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου, σατανᾶ· σκάνδαλόν μου εἶ, ὅτι οὐ φρονεῖς τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων.

Εἰ οὖν ἐκείνῳ ἐπετίμησας τότε, ὡς ἀνθρώπινα φθεγγομένῳ, τί νῦν ἐπιζητεῖς ὃ τότε ἐκεῖνος ἐκώλυε, καὶ λέγεις· Πάτερ, εἰ δυνατὸν, τὸ ποτήριον τοῦτο παρελθέτω;