Peter's First Easter Sunday

PETER’S FIRST EASTER SUNDAY

My name is Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ.  It is Easter Sunday afternoon and I am in the room where He had His last meal with us.  I cannot believe so much has happened since then.  I feel an utter failure.  I have such mixed emotions.

When Jesus needed me and the rest of us, we let Him down.  I did make some effort in the Garden when I cut off the ear of one of those who had come to apprehend Him but after that I was so scared.  With John I followed Jesus as far as the court of the High priest.  I was curious to know what they would do to our Master and would have liked to help but what good would I have been?  There were so many of them and they were determined to eliminate Jesus.  I was so weak.  I cannot believe I even denied to a maid that I had no knowledge of Jesus!  After my three denials a cock crew.  He looked at me and I wept bitterly.  But in that brief look I could see how much Jesus still loved me, and I knew He understood my weakness and was offering me forgiveness.

How Jesus endured all that suffering I shall never know.  I could not believe my ears when I heard the crowd in Pilate’s courtyard shout, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”  Why didn’t I defend Jesus at that moment?  I did love Jesus, but I was so frightened.  Jesus, as He stood before Pilate, was a broken Man.  He had a crown of thorns on His head and a soldier’s cloak around His shoulders.  The soldiers must have mocked Him as a king.  John related to me the events of the Passion.  Jesus could hardly carry the heavy cross they laid on His shoulders.  They had to force a man called Simon from the crowd to help Him carry the Cross to Calvary.  In excruciating pain He hung for three hours before He died.  How I wish I had been stronger like John and stood at the foot of the Cross to let Him know I cared and to bring some comfort to His mother.  Since His death, I and the rest of the Apostles have lost all reason for living.  He was our reason.  For three years we followed Him day and night.  We never let Him out of our sight.  We hung upon His every word.  Now what will we do without Him?

I spent Saturday evening with John.  In the early hours of Sunday morning Mary of Magdala and another woman found us and told us the unbelievable news that the tomb was empty, and that they had seen an angel who said that Jesus had risen.  John and I ran as fast as we could to the tomb.  John got there before me but he let me enter the tomb first.  It was just as the women had said.

The religious and Roman authorities had killed Jesus and now we will be their next target.  I rallied the rest of the Apostles to the Upper Room, because I thought there will be safety in numbers.  Here we are behind locked doors listening to every step on the stairway.  All of us are here except Thomas and are wrapped in our thoughts.  If only we could have Him here with us now!  He would put new life into our hearts.  He would bring us peace.

As Peter was having these thoughts he was startled.  Jesus came through the locked doors.  “Peace be with you!”  We could not believe what we were seeing and hearing, and He greeted us again.  “Peace be with you!”  He then breathed on us.  I could see what He was doing.  Just as God at the beginning of creation breathed life in the Earth, Jesus was breathing life into us dead men.  Then to assure us that He had not only forgiven us for the way we had treated Him, He also gave us the power to forgive others their sins. “Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven; whose sins you shall retain they are retained.”

Peace, the Holy Spirit and forgiveness of sins were Jesus’ three Easter gifts to the Apostles, and they are the same gifts He gives us this Easter day.  Like Peter there have been times when we have not lived up to the standards Jesus has set us.  Like Peter we must trust that Jesus has forgiven us and on this day is giving us another chance to prove our love for Him.

Holy Father, may the peace of the Risen Christ and the friendship of the Holy Spirit envelop us today as we begin to celebrate the Easter season.

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