FIRE Committee Newsletter Lenten Series - 2015 The Prayer of St. Ephrem O Lord and Master of my life, dispel from me the spirit of slothfulness, indifference, ambition and vain talking. (prostration to ground). Grant instead to me, your servant, the spirit of purity, humility, patience and charity. (prostration to ground) Yes, my Lord and my King, bestow upon me the grace of being aware of my own sins and of not judging others. For you are Blessed for ever and ever. Amen. (prostration to ground) Did Jesus Sweat Blood? And he came out, and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him. (Luke 22:39) At approximately 9 p.m. on Holy Thursday, April 2, A.D. 33, Jesus and his disciples walked northeast about one mile from the Upper Room on Mount Zion down into the Kidron Valley and up the Mount of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane. The temperature would have been in the mid to upper 50s and the trek probably took about 25-30 minutes. Table of Contents The Prayer of St. Ephrem Did Jesus Sweat Blood? Capital Sin Quick Links CMA Website Donate Now Contact Us Email Us FIRE COMMITTEE Chair: Kathleen M. Raviele, MD Chair: Kevin Murrell, MD Don D. Bouchard, DO Donna C. Dobrowolsky, MD Sr. Mary Diana Dreger, OP, MD Rev. Matthew J. Gutowski, STL Sr. Edith M. Hart, RSM, DO Cynthia B. Hunt, MD Thomas W. McGovern, MD Anthony S. Oliva, MD
Thousand year-old olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane, October 23, 2014 during olive harvest. And when he came to the place he said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." (Luke 22:40) Author next to the altar in the Grotto of Gethsemane where the apostles are thought to have prayed - and slept. Note the sleeping apostles beneath the altar. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, "Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." (Luke 22:41-42) Jesus then walked a little further uphill to what is today known at the Rock of Agony in the Church of All Nations.
Rock of Agony in the Church of All Nations on the Mount of Olives. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down upon the ground. ( Luke 22:43-44) The Greek words that the physician Luke uses are thromboi haimatos. Vine s expository dictionary of New Testament words explains that thromboi shares the etymology of a word meaning to curdle. Therefore, Luke describes what looked like thick drops of clotted blood falling to the ground. I think of globs of semi-clotted hematoma that I removed from post-surgical bleeding wounds. For decades, this extremely rare phenomenon has been described as being caused by the rupture of cutaneous blood vessels into sweat glands during extreme emotional episodes. As a dermatologist, I have always found this description unsatisfying. Daily I review dozens of microscope slides of skin and see numerous, dense, intact sweat glands and ducts lined with two layers of cuboidal epithelial cells. I could not imagine how numerous sweat glands or ducts could develop defects to accept blood from either ruptured capillaries or via diapedesis from dilated capillaries. Matthew (26:38) and Mark ( 14:34) report that Jesus describes his agony as very sorrowful, even to death. Certainly, his sympathetic autonomic nervous system was activated. In the skin, post-ganglionic sympathetic nerves are both adrenergic and cholinergic; the adrenergic ones vasoconstrict, but the cholinergic ones vasodilate. Therefore, there is a physiologic basis for cutaneous vasodilation when our fight of flight response is activated. Additionally, the sympathetic response triggers increased sweating, also through post-ganglionic cholinergic neurons.
Now we come to the medical data. Over 80 cases of hematidrosis of hemohidrosis have been reported. Until this century, the last case report I can find of hematidrosis is over 50 years old. However, since 2004, there are at least 10 case reports including photographs and skin biopsy results! These cases predominantly occurred in children and young women who were unaware that they were bleeding, although in some patients, they were more frequent during times of emotional excitement To see a photo of hematidrosis, click here Bleeding occurred from places containing sweat glands (scalp, palms, soles, trunk, extremities, and face) and those that don t contain sweat glands (lacrimal glands, tongue, nail beds Specimens of the exuding fluid contained normal blood components (red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets) The skin was not particularly tender after each event No patients developed petechiae, purpura, or ecchymoses Patients treated with the anti-sympathetic beta-blocker propranolol uniformly improved and led to cessation of bleeding episodes Skin biopsies performed immediately after bleeding episodes showed no abnormalities (including dilated capillaries or defects in sweat glands and ducts) One skin biopsy performed during a bleeding episode was informative ( Am J Dermatopathol 30:135-139. 2008.) Specimen was completely step-sectioned Specimen was immunostained for vascular endothelial markers Specimen was viewed with hematoxylin and eosin staining under light microscopy as well as by electron microscopy Focal collections of red blood cells were found in follicular lumina near the orifices Collagen fibers were focally separated, especially near hair follicles, and spaces contained both red blood cells and fibrin. Step-sectioning found large blood-filled spaces opening directly onto skin or into follicular canals The spaces were not lined with vascular endothelium
The eccrine sweat glands were normal and unconnected to these blood-filled spaces Based on recent evidence, we have a basis for believing that what Saint Luke reports was medically accurate. During activation of the sympathetic nervous system, it is indeed possible to both sweat profusely and exude blood through the skin so that they mix and fall to the ground together. But he did not sweat blood. Based on these recent reports, this phenomenon does not tenderize the skin. We have no way of knowing how much blood Jesus lost. As the temperature o dropped below 50 on this early April evening, the sweat and blood probably cooled his skin and caused shivering. Although blood loss may have been small, every bit counted, since he would not again eat or drink after the Last Supper and had many opportunities to lose more of his Precious Blood during the next 15 or so hours. Capital Sin But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of flesh are against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. Galatians 5.16-17 St Paul reminds us of the nature of our common spiritual struggle. We all know about mortal sin, specified in the Ten Commandments, which destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God s law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him. Venial sin allows charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it. (*CCC 1855). "For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: 'Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.'" All mortal sins must be taken to the Sacrament of Reconciliation before one can receive the Eucharist. (CCC 1857) But, most of the struggles we face go on quietly, almost secretly, in the mundane and ordinary moments of every day life. It is much more effective for the evil spirit to set about temptation slowly, and with subtlety, so as to hardly be noticed. Frequently, we are not even aware of these temptations, much less give consent to them. These struggles are referred to as vices, for they lead us away from virtues,
and promote actions that potentially weaken charity. Vices can also be linked to the capital sins They are called "capital" because they engender other sins, other vices. (CCC 1866). As human beings affected by the Fall, we experience the struggle of the flesh versus the Spirit. The Church identifies key temptations, seducing thoughts, that are part of the Christian experience. St. John Cassian listed them as gluttony, sexual immorality, love of money, sadness, anger, acedia, vainglory and pride. Later, St. Gregory the Great identified them as the seven deadly sins, or capital sins: pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth or acedia. (CCC1866). In the coming weeks of Lent we will examine aspects of sin in our lives highlighted within the Prayer of St. Ephrem. Meditating upon the prayer, we seek a deeper awareness of ways in which specific capital sins may take us away from the Lord s love, and we pray for spiritual healing and growth in virtues. This week, as Dr. Tom McGovern continues to guide our intimate journey with Christ in His Passion, let us keep in mind the following words of St. John Cassian: Whether these thoughts (capital sins) are able to disturb the soul or not is not up to us; but whether they linger or not, and whether they arouse passions or not; that is up to us. *CCC = Catechism of the Catholic Church