10/04/2023

What a difference we see in the Peter some seven weeks after the shamefaced, despairing weakling who could not respond when challenged about his discipleship, we saw on the morning of Good Friday. 

Jesus is so far above us that words really do fail when trying to grasp a concept of his being. He did teach, he did cure the sick, he did feed the hungry, he did face up to Satan, he did raise Lazarus from the dead. He is God and simultaneously a Man as human as we are. He is way above my understanding. I can only, in awe, say "Yes" to him or totally reject him. 

Peter is only a man and as such we can relate to his weakness and take heart from his recovery. For three years Peter had followed his Rabbi throughout Palestine. He had prayed by his side both privately and publicly, in synagogues  and in the Temple. He had rejected him at the time of the trial and avoided the cruel spectacle of the death on the cross. We can see in Peter all the evidence we need, as sinful men, to live in hope of Heaven.

He is as weak as I am but having been chosen he really does become the rock on which the Church can be built. He is filled with the Holy Spirit and this morning, in a loud voice, he proclaims the Resurrection in the very faces of those who had chosen Death.

Dear Lord you are indeed the Evergreater God. Father Son and Holy Spirit you fill us with your Grace. We can join with Peter in his witness to your Love and with Mary as our Mother we can as her children plead for the forgiveness and Mercy that we can only receive but never earn. You are the Lord. Maranatha.