Devotion for today: the sadness of Christ: Peter's denial

This week we have looked at various “people of the passion.” Now we turn our eyes on Peter. We have moved on to the high priests’ trial of Jesus.

Christ said: Luke 22:31-34

“Simon, Simon! Remember that Satan has asked for you, to sift you all like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may never fail. You, in turn, must strengthen your brothers.” “Lord,” he said to him, “at your side I am prepared to face imprisonment and death itself.” Jesus replied, “I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow today until you have three times denied that you know me.”

Blessed John Paul II tells us: (based on Luke 22:54-62) Let us go back to the night we had left behind when we entered the hall where Jesus’ first trial was taking place. The darkness and the cold are pierced by the flames of a brazier in the courtyard of the palace of the Sanhedrin. The servants and guards are holding out their hands to the warmth; their faces are lighted up. And three voices, one after another, speak out, and three hands point towards a face they recognize, the face of Peter. The first is a woman’s voice. She is one of the maids in the palace; looking the disciple in the eye, she exclaims, "You too were with Jesus!" A man’s voice follows: "You are one of them!" Another man later makes the same accusation, after hearing Peter’s northern accent: "You were with him!" Faced with these declarations, the Apostle, as if in a desperate crescendo of self-defense, does not hesitate to lie: "I do not know Jesus! I am not one of his disciples! I don’t know what you are talking about!" The light of that brazier penetrates far beyond Peter’s face; it lays bare his wretched heart, his frailty, his selfishness, his fear. And yet only a few hours earlier, he had proclaimed, "Even though all fall away, I will not! … If I must die with you, I will not deny you!" The curtain, however, does not fall on this betrayal, as was the case with Judas. That night a noise pierces the silence of Jerusalem, but above all Peter’s own conscience: the sound of the cock crowing. Precisely at that moment Jesus comes forth from the tribunal that has condemned him. Luke describes the exchange of glances between Christ and Peter with a word in Greek that suggests a penetrating stare at someone’s face. But, as the Evangelist notes, this is not just any man who looks at another; it is "the Lord", whose eyes peer into the depths of the heart, into the deepest secrets of a person’s soul. From the eyes of the Apostle fall tears of repentance. In his story are condensed countless stories of infidelity and conversion, of weakness and liberation. "I wept, and I believed!" – in these two simple words, centuries later, a convert, Francois Rene De Chateaubriand, would compare his own experience to that of Peter, thus speaking for all of us who daily make petty betrayals, protecting ourselves with cowardly justifications, letting ourselves be overcome with base fears. But, like the Apostle, we too can take the road that brings us to Christ’s gaze and we can hear him give us the same charge: you, too, "once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers!" (http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/documents/index_via-crucis_en.html - Cached).

Prayer: Psalm 22:25-26

For he has not spurned nor disdained the wretched man in his misery, nor did he turn his face away from him, but when he cried out to him, he heard him. So by your gift will I utter praise in the vast assembly; I will fulfill my vows before those who fear him.

My thoughts: I cannot even imagine how Peter felt when he beheld the face of Jesus: Jesus staring into Peter’s eyes, the sadness and disappointment evident in His gaze. Peter’s heart must have been shattered. I read that St. Peter admitted to crying every day of his life over his denial. There is a great lesson in that for us. When we sin, and we realize the full weight of that sin, we can identify with Peter as he beholds Jesus in the courtyard. Our own hearts break and we feel so despondent at having disappointed our Lord. We can cry and feel remorse, but it cannot stop us from regaining our footing, confessing our sin, and moving on. Jesus had plans for Peter, just as He does for us. Blessed John Paul reminds us that once we are forgiven, Jesus expects us to turn around and care for our fellow man. There is no time in God’s plan for us to wallow in self-disgust. We must follow Peter, and believe in the forgiveness of God.

Our prayer to God: Blessed John Paul II created a new Stations of the Cross, which he unveiled at the Coliseum on Good Friday in 1991. They are not meant to replace the traditional ones, but to serve as another form of meditation. The above reflection is the fourth station. Why not add these to your Lenten devotional plan? They can be found on the Vatican website www.vatican.va.