I Am Peter's Shadow

     Year after year as a young man I wondered time and time again, “Why would the Lord pick Peter?  He failed in the hour of need! He was boastful and hot headed!  Then he sinned by inaction no different than Adam!”  After gaining many a grey hair, all I can think of is how I am Peter’s Shadow! 

    Peter was the first Apostle to receive and act on the gift of Faith by telling the Lord he was the Messiah.  Peter wanted to protect the Lord but was called a Devil for trying to avoid the Lord’s death in Jerusalem.  Peter wanted no part in the Lord humbling himself to wash his feet, but when corrected displayed exuberance in saying wash my whole body!  Peter struck the High Priest’s slave in the garden with Christ, but denied Christ three times in the garden of man.  Peter did not come to the foot of the Cross, but ran with abandon to the empty tomb.

    I now recognize Peter is the disciple who’s spirit and temperament is closest to mine.  I can get exuberant, but make mistakes just as brilliantly.  I see the world in ways most others do not, but it does not mean I am always right or can even explain myself!  I know the Lord is my God, but in sinning abandon our Lord in both dark of night and light of the day. 

    This Good Friday, as I attend Stations of the Cross, I will recognize myself as Peter’s Shadow on Good Friday.  I know in my life I often abandoned Christ on the road to Golgotha.  I know when I refuse to participate in Christ’s suffering, I hurt Christ and his mystical body even more! 

    So I will do as Peter did after Christ died.  See Peter was hiding in that Upper Room Easter morning, but it does not mean he was slothful!  Peter assembled the Apostles over the two days Christ spent in the tomb.  In that Upper Room he was feeding Christ’s shepherds!  It might have been in fear and sheepishly, but he began doing part of his vocation.  He just needed a cue card for his next steps on when and where to re-enter the world!

   As Peter’s Shadow this weekend I will take a page from his life.  I will look at the family God placed in my care, memorialize my failings since I will see them again at my judgement, ask the Lord for forgiveness, and get back to work serving those in my care while I await the Lord’s next command on Easter Morning.  I know the Lord will expect nothing less.

 -ehw