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Sunday, 28 March 2010 19:59 |
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The Passion of Our Lord
PETER'S DENIALS
Peter denies all knowledge of Our Lord. Our own denials.
As the trial of Jesus proceeds before the Sanhedrin, the saddest event in the life of Peter takes place. The one who had left everything to follow Our Lord, who had seen so many miracles worked and had received so many tokens of affection, now denies him utterly. He feels himself cornered and even swears he does not know Jesus.
And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the maids of the high priest came; and seeing Peter warming himself she looked at him, and sai4 ‘You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.’ But he denied it, saying, ‘I neither know nor understand what you mean. ‘And he went out into the gateway. And the maid saw him, and began again to say to the bystanders, ‘This man is one of them.’ But again he denied it. And after a little while again the bystanders said to Peter, ‘Certainly you are one of them; for you are a Galilean. ‘But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, ‘I do not know this man of whom you speak’ (Mark 14:66-71).
He denies that he knows his Lord, thereby denying the deepest meaning of his life, which is to be an Apostle and witness of the life of Christ and to proclaim that Jesus is the Son of the living God. His honour, his vocation to be an Apostle, all the hopes that had been placed in him by God, his past and his future, all came tumbling down. How could he possibly have said, I know not this man?
A miracle worked by Jesus a few years before had had for him a deep and special significance. On seeing the miraculous draught of fishes (the first of them), Peter had understood everything; he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord'. For he was astonished... (cf Luke 5:8-9). It seems that in a flash everything had become clear for him: the holiness of Christ and his own condition as a sinful man. Black stood in clear contrast with white, darkness with light, dirt with cleanness, sin with sanctity. In that moment, whilst his lips were saying that because of his sins he felt unworthy to be close to Our Lord, his eyes, however, and his whole attitude were asking that he might never ever depart from Him. That was such a happy day. That was when everything really began for him: And Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; hence forth you will be catching men. ‘And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him (Luke 5:10-11). Peter’s life from that moment on would have a most marvellous purpose, that of loving Christ and being a fisher of men. Everything else would serve as a means and an instrument to that end. Yet now, out of weakness and having allowed himself to be overcome by fear and human respect, everything had collapsed.
Sin, infidelity to a greater or lesser degree, always involves a denial of Christ and of that which is most noble within us, a denial of the highest ideals that Christ has sown inside us. Sin is the great downfall of man. This is why we need to struggle with determination, counting on grace, so that we avoid all grave sins, whether of malice, weakness or culpable ignorance, and then all deliberate venial sin.
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With permission from Scepter UK. Short excerpt from IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD by Francis Fernandez.
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