This is a grove of olive trees on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus went after the Last Supper to pray. The disciples go with him and, in Luke, he simply tells all of them to pray that they won't be tested. Jesus goes off "a stone's throw" and kneels down to pray. He begs God to take away the suffering that threatens, but adds, "Father, let your will, not mine, be done."
Luke Timothy Johnson in his commentary on Luke, points out that the term agonia comes from agon which refers to the sort of struggle in which wrestlers engage. He translates, "And entering the struggle, he continued to pray more eagerly." Jesus surrenders his deep desire to live and plunges whole-heartedly into his passion.
Jesus shows us how to face suffering. By lining his will up with his Father's will, he comes to a calm acceptance of all that follows. A kind of peace suffuses his entire being. Luke's passion account is colored by this peace.
I used to have a plaque on my living room wall with this quote from T.S Eliot's poem Ash Wednesday which, I think, may echo Dante:
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks
Our peace in His will.
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