Paschal Meditation: Christ and Peter

Detail of miniature of Christ speaking to Peter,
"Arnstein Passional" (12th c.)

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.” — John 10:14–15

That bright morning by the Sea of Tiberias after the risen Lord had breakfasted with his disciples, he strengthened Simon son of John to be what he was called.  When Jesus had first looked at Simon son of John, he said to him, “‘You are to be called Cephas’ (Petros, Peter)” (Jn. 1:42).  He called him the rock (petra) who would prove unstable, who would be prostrated by denying “the stumbling stone” (Rom. 9:32).  Now again he calls Simon to come to him, the Living Stone, and to be built upon the Cornerstone, becoming, like him, a living stone (cf. 1 Pt. 2:4–5).  Jesus strengthened Simon son of John to become Peter.

That bright morning the Shepherd removed the shame of his sheep who had scattered; the one who was deserted comforted (com-fortis) the one who vainly promised never to desert him, “though all become deserters” (Mt. 26:33).  When Peter told Jesus, “I will lay down my life for you” (Jn. 13:37), he presumed to possess the strength of love necessary “to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (15:13).  But his denials revealed the hollowness of his words, and he was deflated.  Now his Lord comes to build him up with love.  Three times Jesus gives Peter to declare his love for him, and three times he calls him to love “in truth and action” (1 Jn. 3:18) by feeding his flock.  In so doing, Jesus casts out the fear in which Peter had denied him, and leads him to the perfection of love.*  The Shepherd, who laid down his life for the sheep (10:15), strengthens Peter to follow him.

Because Jesus first loved him, Peter will lay down his life for him, glorifying God in his death.  As Augustine puts it, 

“Such was the end reached by that denier and lover (ille negator, et amator); elated by his presumption, prostrated by his denial, cleansed by his weeping, approved by his confession, crowned by his suffering, this was the end he reached, to die with a perfected love for the name of him with whom, by a perverted forwardness, he had promised to die. He would do, when strengthened by his resurrection, what in his weakness he promised prematurely. For the needful order was that Christ should first die for Peter’s salvation, and then that Peter should die for the preaching of Christ.”†

* 1 Jn. 4:18.  Cf. Augustine: “Let it be the office of love to feed the Lord’s flock, if it was the signal of fear to deny the Shepherd” (Io. ev. tr. 123.5).

† Augustine, Io. ev. tr. 123.4.

Detail of Apse Mosaic, Basilica San Clemente, Rome