Like a sapling he grew up in front of us, like a root in arid ground. Without beauty, without majesty (we saw him), no looks to attract our eyes; a thing despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, a man to make people screen their faces; he was despised and we took no account of him. And yet, ours were the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrows he carried. (Isaiah 52)
The enormous anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane is the anguish of Jesus who yearns for the love of his friends, but they don't realize it. He longs to give them love but they haven't opened themselves to receive it. This is the enormous anguish of God who is only love...who leaves people free to accept or reject that love.
Henri Nouwen
