How much can we really handle?

I’ve never agreed with the phrase “God will never give you more than you can handle.” God and I have definitely had discussions about that one. But I do agree with “God will never give you more than you can handle with Him.”

I realized one year, as I went to adoration on Holy Thursday, that Jesus’ agony in the garden had two very distinct characteristics. Whenever that mystery comes up in the rosary, I focus on Jesus’ prayer that the cup be taken from him, and his prayer, “Not my will but your will be done.”

I know that agony. I have begged for the cup I thought was coming to pass. I have prayed with friends who don’t want what they know is coming. I have actually been to the Garden of Gethsemane. For me, the hardest part of that prayer is “Not my will, but yours.” My will is usually much easier than God’s will. It may not be very good for me, but it’s definitely easier!

It was only when I went to the end of adoration on Holy Thursday one year that I realized I had limited the story to Jesus’ agony.

But that year, I started adoration at the end of the Holy Thursday liturgy, took the children home, put them to bed, and came back. I’d never been there at the end. At 11:45pm, adoration was finished, and Jesus in the Eucharist was taken away as we remember how He was arrested, tried, and would soon be crucified. I expected it to be pretty emotional.

What I didn’t expect was the absolute peace and sense of power that I felt the moment I stepped into the room.

The agony was over, the question had been asked, and the answer had been given. This cup would not pass, but Jesus was not going to do this alone. Jesus stood up, woke Peter, James, and John, and walked straight to Judas. Nothing was going to stop Him on the way to the cross. Nothing.