With regards to the tremendous events that took place during the Night of the Garden of Olives, we have hinted at the fact, without assuring it, that the Triumph of Satan over Jesus Christ in those crucial moments was merely apparent. Truly, it was simply a figure of speech in order to introduce the theme: the Victory of the Great Enemy over the Son of God made Man was, then, absolutely real.

            It is not less true, however, that it was a transitory Triumph; although Satan, wrapped as he was in the nets of his own Lie, was convinced that it had been definitive. He did not discover his mistake –a decisive and incalculable error—until the moment when Jesus breathed on the Cross His last breath. It was there, and when any going back was no longer possible, that Satan finally realized the unfathomable depth of his mistake (1 Cor 2:8). It is very interesting to see how liars end up believing their own lies, following a rule which finds its greatest degree of fulfillment in the Father of all lies; hence he became the Father of all the Deceived (Jn 8:44).

            The Triumph of the Great Enemy over Jesus Christ that terrible Night was not at all apparent; quite the contrary, it was entirely real. It was a Victory which had already had its origin in very remote times when, disguised as a Serpent, the Enemy of God and man was able to deceive the First Parents of Mankind; although now, at last, after thousands of years, the Enemy achieved its consummation. The Night of the Garden of Olives was, therefore, the moment of the Glory of Satan – the Glory of the Olive Tree, that is, the one that took place in the so-named Garden of Olives—, as opposed to what, at that same moment, appeared to be the total failure –and so it was—of the Mission that the Son of Man came to this world to accomplish.

            The horror of what that Night meant for Jesus Christ will never be understood in its total depth by men because it truly was a horror saturated with reality – as His Anguish was also real, to the point of death, according to His own words. And the same may be said about His sweating of blood; or about the unfathomable abyss that the Temptations to which He was subjected meant; or about the indescribable Darkness of the Night of His Soul in which He –the Innocent above all other innocents—was loaded with the miseries and sins of all Mankind; or about the infinite anguish of feeling Himself abandoned by His Father, even as if He had been found guilty…

            In that terrible Night, had the Glory to which Satan was elevated been merely apparent…, then the horrors that destroyed the Soul of Jesus Christ would have been also merely apparent. It is impossible to ignore the relationship of one with the other.

            This doctrine is as true as it is equally true that Jesus Christ –true Man, after all—would have been willing to reject such Anguish: Father, if it is possible, remove this chalice from me...

            In the life of every man, and more so if he is a Christian, there occur moments of terrible darkness, in which he feels abandoned and everything seems to be lost –the Nights of the Spirit, of which the mystics speak. In such situations, the intensity of the Faith cannot dispel the feeling of having been abandoned by God; of the darkening, to the point of paroxysm, of the very idea of God; of the futility of one’s own existence; of the lack of meaning of all things…; in a few words, of the total failure.

            Jesus Christ –true Man and true God, let us not forget this—lived in that Night all those feelings to a degree that exceeds all human knowledge. It is interesting to point out that the Christian People, and even the very Doctrine, have always suffered the trend of placing greater emphasis on the Divine Nature of Jesus Christ than on His Human Nature. Although it may seem incredible, it seems easier to believe in His miracles than in His suffering. And yet, it is precisely not through such wonders and spectacular actions but through His pain and blood that Jesus Christ is going to look like and become one of us. The Letter to the Hebrews said that without shedding of blood there is no remission (Heb 9:22).

            And how does all this relate to the motto Of the Glory of the Olive Tree which the prophecy of Saint Malachi applied to the historical moment of the Pontificate of Benedict XVI?

            For those who want to see it, such a relationship is not difficult to understand: there is an absolute parallelism that exceeds the limits of what is disturbing for anyone who possesses good will.

            For the Church has never suffered, throughout her entire History, a crisis as deep and dangerous as the current one. Despite all the deceivers and liars of the Propaganda of the System, she seems at this time to be about to disappear. Even the great crisis brought about by Arianism (in the fourth century) had nothing to do in any way with the totality of the Faith; in any case, the heresy was only concerned with certain aspects affecting the right doctrine (dogma, heresy). Not so the current crisis, in which it is not this or that aspect of the Faith that is at stake, but the very existence and meaning of the Faith Itself. In this terrible Night to which the Church is being subjected, she would have reasons for doubting her own subsistence –there are many people, even within Her, who already consider her defunct—, for she is living through moments of such Anguish as she has never experienced before: another new Night of the Garden of Olives which is becoming another Night of the Glory of Satan.

            This is what we are going to try to show in the upcoming editorials.