Saint Peter by Stephen J. Binz

Author:Stephen J. Binz [Binz, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL010000, RELIGION / Christianity/History, REL108020, RELIGION / Christian Church/History, REL110000, RELIGION / Christianity/Saints & Sainthood
Publisher: Loyola Press
Published: 2015-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

This scene demonstrates the fullness of Jesus’ humanity. He is grieved, agitated, distressed, fearful, and worried, needing the supportive companionship of his dearest friends as he prepares for the ordeal to come. He urges his closest companions to remain near him and stay awake.

The scene in Gethsemane is the most intimate portrait the Gospels offer of Jesus at prayer. In this quiet place, Jesus “threw himself on the ground” and began to pray in anguish. The prostrate position with his face to the ground is a stance of complete submission and respect. Jesus begs for deliverance—“let this cup pass from me”; but at the same time he prays for a resolute commitment to God’s will, a poignant paradox that is typical of honest prayer from the heart in times of crisis. Jesus knows that suffering and death lay ahead of him, yet he also knows that he must go on. The cup of suffering, the abandonment of friends, the way of the cross—these are the challenges that test the limits of Jesus’ trust and acceptance.

Today there is an olive grove at Gethsemane with gnarled and ancient trees that look as though they could have been the silent witnesses to Jesus’ sorrowful prayer to the Father that fateful night. Next to the grove is the haunting beauty of the Basilica of the Agony. The dim interior of the church, marked by deep purple windows, evokes the somber grief of those hours. The light focuses on a large rock on which Jesus fell prostrate in his prayerful agony. The fourth-century architects cut away the surrounding rock to isolate the spot. Now the rock is surrounded by a wrought iron crown of thorns. Here countless pilgrims fall upon the rock and pour out their desperate prayers to God. “Thy will be done” is on their lips as they express their personal grief and expectant petitions.

The Gospel accounts show the sharp contrast between Jesus’ fervent prayer and the behavior of his disciples. When Jesus returns the first time to find his disciples sleeping, he scolds Peter directly: “So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial” (Matthew 26:40–41). Even after this explicit imperative, Jesus returns in bitter disappointment to find his disciples sleeping a second time. The cycle then repeats itself a third time, right up to the moment of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest. The sequence in which Peter fails to stay awake and pray anticipates Peter’s three denials of Jesus still to come.

Jesus’ imperative addressed to Peter, “stay awake and pray,” is far more than an appeal to be vigilant at that moment. Prayerful anticipation and readiness for the challenges to come must be the constant stance of Jesus’ followers. But despite Jesus’ warning, Peter does not prepare himself through prayer for his time of trial. Because the disciples are not spiritually vigilant, they are unprepared for the overwhelming crisis of Jesus’ passion.

Peter’s deepest struggle lies not in

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