Trying To Prove We Mean What We Say
Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle
My dear encountered couples:
Peter believed. “You are the Christ”, he said to Jesus, “the Son of the living God!” And he proved he believed it by his life.
But Peter’s faith was not perfect yet, was it? For at the time of Jesus being taken into custody by the Jewish officials, we find Peter’s faith weakening. “I do not know the man,” he said. Not once, but three times - “I do not know who you are talking about.”
You believe in Jesus, don’t you? You believe that he is the Messiah, the Son of God, Savior. You believe he is the fulfillment of all your hopes and dreams. That without him you would be nothing, that away from him you could accomplish nothing worthwhile. And so, you stay near him. You talk to Jesus often, you come to Mass, you do your best to love him in your neighbor. But there are those other times, as there was with Peter, aren’t there? When your faith weakens a bit, you don’t pray so well or so much, when you don’t treat your neighbor too nicely.
During those times, don’t get too down on yourself. Everybody experiences them. They are times that can be used for great benefit. They remind us how imperfect our faith is, how much we cannot do on our own, how much we really need Christ to save us. Our lapses in prayer and acts of love can lead to a strengthening of our faith. Peter’s faith wasn’t yet perfect. We can’t expect ours to be better than his. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” we all declare to Jesus. Now let us resolutely spend the rest of our lives trying to show him we really do believe it.
