A good writer can make us feel very strong emotions even for characters that only exist in his mind. A good film or show will make us enter into the sentiments of the actors. And we become very enraged when a close friend or relative is wronged _ especially if the person committing the wrong is an evil person.
As we have climbed up the mountain to see Christ and realize that He always beheld the Beatific Vision, we can begin to understand how he must have felt. He knew the reverence that God is worthy of, and how the angels bow down in adoring love, trembling with awe in sight of this ineffable sanctity. At the same time He saw the terribleness of sin. The sins of men are an insult to God. Every sin is an offense against God: it is saying to God that we do not love Him and we are not going to listen to Him.
Can we imagine this? To say to God: I know you made me, and that you keep me alive from moment to moment and that if you stopped thinking of me for just one second a would vanish into nothingness, but I don't care; I am going to do what I want anyway. I know that you are above all creatures and that you love me very much and only want what is best for me. I know that you want me to be happy with you forever in Heaven, but if I do not listen to You that You will cast me into Hell for all eternity. The sinner says: "I know all this and I don't care. I am going to sin anyway."
Think of the sorrow that God must feel over such insolence and ingratitude. If you can feel sympathy for an imaginary character, how do you think Jesus feels for His Heavenly Father? Now Christ Who always beheld the face of God often became very angry when he met with such people who were obstinate in their evil ways. He saw very clearly how men treated God and what an injustice this was. This caused Him great agony in the garden of Gethsemani. It caused Him to sweat drops of blood.
One of the greatest evils of our day is our loss of the sense of sin. Who regards sin nowadays through the eyes of Jesus in the garden? Who remembers the absolute nature of God's claims, and the appalling impertinence of the creatures who dare to rise up against Him and dictate conditions and terms to Him? Sin, in large measure, is taken for granted. Modern novel and cinema and illustrated paper assume that the Ten Commandments are out-of-date. Big business scoffs at the petty scruples that might stand in the way of sound profits. Perjury and bribery are condoned easily enough if you "must" extricate yourself from a penalty you have incurred; who is going to hesitate because these crimes cost the Son of God a sweat of blood in Gethsemani?
"Who can understand sins?" Only He Who can fully comprehend God's infinite majesty against Whom sin is committed. Jesus, God, my conscience is dulled as a result of my own sins, as a result of my continuous contact with those who rate crime so lightly. Show me sin, here in this place and time of prayer, even as You saw it in Gethsemani.