Mark 14:38 — Community Reflections

MARK 14:38 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.”

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak — watch and pray is the Gethsemane application of the Olivet watch command. The flesh is weak is not an excuse but a diagnosis: the disciples' failure to pray in advance is why they will fail under pressure. The spirit is willing acknowledges the genuine desire; the flesh is weak explains why the desire is insufficient without prayer.

Church Fathers on Mark 14:38

After that the Lord had foretold the offence of His disciples, the Evangelist gives an account of His prayer, in which He is supposed to have prayed for His disciples; and first describing the place of prayer, he says, 'And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane.'
Gloss (Glossa Ordinaria) · medieval compilation

The place Gethsemane, in which the Lord prayed, is shewn up to this day at the foot of the Mount of Olives. The meaning of Gethsemane is, the valley of the fat, or of fatness. Now when our Lord prays on a mountain, He teaches us that we should when we pray ask for lofty things; but by praying in the valley of fatness, He implies that in our prayer humility and the fatness of interior love must be kept. He also by the valley of humility and the fatness of charity underwent…
Bede · 8th century

In the valley of fatness also, the fat bulls beset Him. There follows, 'And He saith to His disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray;' they are separated from Him in prayer, who are separated in His Passion; for He prays, they sleep, overcome by the sloth of their heart.
Pseudo-Jerome · 5th century

Read all 19 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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