Friday, March 29, AD 2024 1:06am

Saint Peter and the Last Supper

“Erravi cum Petro, sed non flevi cum Petro”, “Like Peter I have erred, unlike Peter I have not wept.”

Bishop Stephen Gardiner on his deathbed after hearing the portion of the Passion where Peter denies Christ.

 

I have always been fascinated by the figure of Saint Peter, our first Pope.  He was such an unlikely choice!  God could have chosen a priest, a very wise teacher, a prophet, a ruler, even, Heaven help us, a lawyer.   Someone who, to most superficial human eyes, would have been vastly more suited to be the first head of His Church on Earth. Instead he chose a humble fisherman.  Why?  Any number of reasons, I suppose, many of them still known only to God.  Perhaps one of the major factors was the love that Peter bore for Christ.  We see this after their first meeting when Peter urges Christ to go from him because Peter is a sinful man.  I think that at that point Peter desperately wanted to follow Christ, but he thought he was unworthy to because of his sins.  He was willing to have Christ depart from him in order to protect Christ from Peter’s sinful nature.

 

 

Peter is heartbroken when Christ reveals that he must die on the Cross.  Peter tells Christ that this must not happen, only to be rebuked by Christ for acting as a Satan attempting to tempt His human weakness.  This was said shortly after Christ, no doubt to Peter’s immense shock, advised him that He was going to build His Church on him, and committed to him the keys of the kingdom of Heaven.  How strange it must have all seemed to the Fisherman from Galilee!  However, his love for Christ kept him at the side of Jesus.

At the Last Supper when Christ reveals the Eucharist, He has this dialogue with Peter:

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.”

And he (Peter) said unto him, “Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.”

And he (Jesus) said, “I tell thee Peter, the cock show not crow on this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.”

After seeing the great miracle of the Last Supper, Peter did precisely that, deserting Christ in His hour of need, denying him three times. 

After the Resurrection Peter would lead the Church until his execution under Nero in Rome.  He would take the early steps that transformed a movement among Jews in Judea into a new religion spanning the Roman Empire, spreading rapidly among both Gentiles and Jews.  His papacy would be capped by his martyrdom, dying on a cross upside down at his request because he was unworthy to die the death that Christ had died.

In choosing Peter, God demonstrated the immense possibilities in the most unlikeliest of God’s children when transformed by the love of God and His grace.  God granted us the Eucharist to bestow upon us this grace and a never failing reminder of His love.  We live in a Fallen World, and our lives are often marred by cowardice and doubt and endless sins.  Holy Thursday reminds us that like Peter we often deny Christ by what we have done and what we fail to do.  However, Holy Thursday also reminds us that also like Saint Peter as long as we live we always have the possibility to do great things for God and our Neighbor if our hope and love can overcome our doubt and fear.

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Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Thursday, March 29, AD 2018 6:17am

St Augustine, the Doctor of Grace, says this about Our Lord’d prayer for Peter, “. If, therefore, you confess that to persevere to the end in good is God’s gift, I think that equally with me you are ignorant why one man should receive this gift and another should not receive it; and in this case we are both unable to penetrate the unsearchable judgments of God. Or if you say that it pertains to man’s free will—which you defend, not in accordance with God’s grace, but in opposition to it—that any one should persevere in good, or should not persevere, and it is not by the gift of God if he persevere, but by the performance of human will, why will you strive against the words of Him who says, “I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith fail not”? Luke 22:32 Will you dare to say that even when Christ prayed that Peter’s faith might not fail, it would still have failed if Peter had willed it to fail; that is, if he had been unwilling that it should continue even to the end? As if Peter could in any measure will otherwise than Christ had asked for him that he might will. For who does not know that Peter’s faith would then have perished if that will by which he was faithful should fail, and that it would have continued if that same will should abide? But because “the will is prepared by the Lord,” Proverbs 8:35 therefore Christ’s petition on his behalf could not be a vain petition. When, then, He prayed that Peter’s faith should not fail, what was it that He asked for, but that in his faith Peter should have a most free, strong, invincible, persevering will! Behold to what an extent the freedom of the will is defended in accordance with the grace of God, not in opposition to it; because the human will does not attain grace by freedom, but rather attains freedom by grace, and a delightful constancy, and an insuperable fortitude that it may persevere.”

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Thursday, March 29, AD 2018 6:59am

Thank you both Donald McClarey – I have a special affection for Peter.

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Thursday, March 29, AD 2018 8:13am

MPS quoted Augustine as saying, “…because the human will does not attain grace by freedom, but rather attains freedom by grace…”

Modern society always places freedom before grace and that freedom becomes nothing other than license. But grace comes first to lead one to freedom from enslavement to sin. Excellent quote.

Howard
Howard
Thursday, March 29, AD 2018 12:27pm

“I think that at that point Peter desperately wanted to follow Christ, but he thought he was unworthy ….” Minor correction: he KNEW he was unworthy. He was being realistic. Too often we lie to ourselves to salve our egos.

I really love how St. Peter reacts in THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST when he realizes he has betrayed his Lord. He knows he is a spiritual leper. He draws back from the Blessed Virgin when she tries to reach out to him; he is horrified at the thought of her being contaminated by touching him. She would not have actually been contaminated, but he was correct in evaluating himself. As I said before, he was being realistic.

This, I think, is also why Peter ran into the Tomb though John pulled up. Peter had abandoned Christ, along with all the other apostles except John. Peter needed to know more than John did.

In fact, I strongly suspect that all the apostles (except, probably, for Judas Iscariot) watched the Crucifixion. They were close enough to see, but aside from John they were not close enough to render any kind of support or comfort to Christ or His Mother. When St. Thomas spoke of the wounds in Christ’s hands and side, he does not sound like someone repeating a story he heard second-hand; he sounds like someone who had seen those very wounds, and who knew just how horrible they actually were.

Lazarus Gethsemane
Lazarus Gethsemane
Thursday, March 29, AD 2018 4:28pm

Chesterton said it first – and said it best. He identified the Divine paradox of The Chair of Peter:

“When Christ at a symbolic moment was establishing His great society, He chose for its cornerstone neither the brilliant Paul nor the mystic John, but a shuffler, a snob, a coward – in a word, a man. And upon this rock He has built His Church, and the gates of Hell have not prevailed against it. All the empires and the kingdoms have failed, because of this inherent and continual weakness, that they were founded by strong men and upon strong men. But this one thing, the historic Christian Church, was founded on a weak man, and for that reason it is indestructible. For no chain is stronger than its weakest link.” ~ G.K.Chesterton

What’s the point? The Chair of Peter itself is often The Gates of Hell. And it will not prevail against The Deposit of Faith.

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