When Jesus and his disciples were nearing the Gethsemane experience, the occasion of one of the final and supreme tests in Jesus' earth mission, he said to them (John 15:9), "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love." And as if to emphasize the point he said, "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you."
It would be sad indeed to contemplate the failure of the disciples to support their Master in the garden of Gethsemane were it not that through this very experience Jesus proved for the benefit of all mankind that the Christ-consciousness is able to rise above every earthly woe and overcome the human at every point.
In the light of this experience, there is never a human situation in which one is justified in his failure to love. Mary Baker Eddy, the revelator of the Science of Christ, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" gives as part of the definition of "Gethsemane" (p. 586), "Love meeting no response, but still remaining love."
