“Jesus said, ‘I say to you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will [utterly] deny three times that you know Me.’” (Luke 22:34).
When Saint Simon Peter was travelling with Christ, he very often told Christ that he would fight for Him and defend Him to the death. He often spoke to Christ about how brave he would be in a battle to save his beloved Friend…
And Christ – who is not only Perfect Man, but also Perfect God – would have known that Sait Simon Peter was going to fail and fail dismally in this attempt. In fact Christ proved that He knew this when He was able to foresee it and actually explicitly said it, at the Last Supper…
“Jesus said, ‘I say to you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will [utterly] deny three times that you know Me.’” (Luke 22:34).
And still, despite all the times when Saint Simon Peter made these promises that would actually never come true, Christ never once mocked him. He never once lost patience with him. He never once berated Saint Simon Peter for his weakness. Instead, Christ listened to Saint Simon Peter with pure love in His Heart. He heard what Saint Simon Peter had planned and I imagine He would have smiled at the Saint with all the love in His Divine Soul and He would have thought to Himself, how beautiful is the love of this little one.
And even knowing how terrible would be His fate – alone on that Cross – He would have found joy in the intention of this Saint, even if the Saint was unable to deliver on his promise…
Because Christ is God and God meets us where we are. He does not expect us to reach the pinnacle of our success or of our potential in the first moment. Instead, He celebrates our plans with us. He finds joy in our best efforts. And when we fail, He waits with INFINITE patience for us to turn back to Him and say sorry…
And I have been reflecting on this failure of Saint Peter. For he did fail in all the things that he had been promising Christ. And when He did, he wept…
“And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.” (Luke 22:61-62).
And I wonder now, in that look of Our Lord to Saint Simon Peter and how much love there must have been in that look. And how utterly devastated Saint Simon Peter would have been at his own weakness. And it seems to me that there was simply too much sadness for Saint Simon Peter to bear after seeing that look in the eyes of His Beloved. For He would have known that Christ knew that he would fail all along. And he would have known that Christ loved him anyway and listened patiently and with love all along. And he would have known the love of the Lord, in that moment of failure. And it seems to me that there would not have been tears enough in all the world to accommodate that…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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