Fr. Michael Williams

In St Peter’s Square, in front of St Peter’s basilica, is a large needle shaped structure- standing at over 80 foot -called the Obelisk. It has been standing in the same place for nearly two thousand years. It was the Roman Emperor Caligula who had it put there. This structure has witnessed many things. One of the most significant things it witnessed was the crucifixion of a Galilean fisherman called Simon Peter. The Obelisk was probably one of the last things Simon Peter set his eyes on in this world. Following Simon Peter’s martyrdom the Christians immediately took Peter\’s body and buried it in the nearby cemetery. The remains of the Galilean fisherman are still there today, daily venerated by pilgrims under St Peter’s Basilica.

Christ had revealed to Simon Peter that he would die a martyr’s death: ‘when you grow old you will stretch out your hands, and somebody will put a belt around you and take you where you would rather not go’. As Peter was crucified upside down on the Vatican Hill, the Obelisk in view, that prophesy was fulfilled. In his faithfulness unto death, Peter ‘gave glory to God’. From his humble beginnings Simon the fisherman, became Peter the Rock, on which Christ built His Church. It’s a Church that all the power and arrogance of the Roman Empire, headed by the likes of Caligula and Nero, could not destroy; it’s a Church today that will not be overcome by the godless philosophy of humanism and liberal secularism, headed by the arrogant politicians of our day.

The faithfulness of Peter, and the faithfulness of His successor, Pope Benedict XVI, is founded on the Rock of the God, who is love. Pope Benedict recently celebrated his second anniversary as St Peter’s successor. In his two most important letters that he has published since becoming Pope- Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) and Sacramentum Caritatis (Sacrament of Love), Benedict has emphasised the great love God has for each human person. A love that was most powerfully manifested, when God had His heart pierced on the cross for us. God teaches us that true love in this world demands sacrifice, which contrasts with the gushing counterfeit love of the modern world, which is more to do with pleasure, than sacrifice.

Peter was someone who gradually came to realise the great sacrificial love that Christ had for him. We know that prior to Our Lord’s crucifixion Peter had denied ever knowing Jesus three times. But God always gives people a second chance, and often a third, a fourth chance, infinite chances. God does not remove people from his book at their first mistake (Thankfully). The Lord forgave the repentant Peter, who wept because of his failure. Peter realised his mistakes, and so received God’s forgiveness and after receiving the mercy of God himself he wanted to share it with others. Peter’s mission sprung from the fact he had experienced Jesus, as a loving Saviour, who dies for him. Our Lord reveals to us the proof of how much He loves us in His passion and death. But the Lord then asks Peter, and us, in return ‘Do you love me?’ To love is an act of the will, not a feeling. Peter would not have felt great, dying in pain on Vatican Hill, yet he willed to love Christ, by witnessing to Him amidst pain and suffering.

St John’s gospel shows us the love Jesus has for Peter, despite his frailties; Jesus is patient with Peter, as He is patient with us. Because Peter experienced the patience of God he will write in his second letter, ‘The Lord is being patient with you, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody brought to repentance’. The Lord’s patience with Peter proved fruitful. Peter is given a special mission and authority, which is seen in today’s passage from St John’s gospel. Peter is told by Christ, ‘to feed my lambs [and] to look after my sheep’. Christ, the Good Shepherd, entrusts the care of His flock, to Peter: ‘feed my lambs…look after my sheep’. Peter was to feed Christ’s flock by encouraging them in the Christian life and faithfulness to the gospel. In the reading from Acts of the Apostles Peter feeds Christ’s flock in that short speech of his to the High Priest. Peter says, ‘the God of our ancestors has raised up Jesus…who you had executed by hanging on a tree’. The Resurrection of Christ is the bedrock of our faith. Christ has overcome death, by dying on the cross. He did so because of His great love for us.

Peter was willing to go to his death witnessing to the Lord, because he knew Christ had overcome sin and death, because of the sacrificial love Christ has for us. Let’s pray that we too will know and experience the love Christ has for us, and respond to this love, by proclaiming Christ’s victory over death to the people of our time, through our words and actions.