Simon Peter The Hothead

Every once in a while I take great comfort in the fact that Simon Peter was such a flawed person.

Peter had a great intensity about him and had flashes of brilliance (grace) in leading his bretheren as the first Pope. But he was also a dumb fisherman who frequently shot off his mouth without first engaging his brain.

On the mountain of the transfiguration, Peter said . . . “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents. . . .” But he did not know what he was saying. Lk 9:33

At the feeding of the four thousand, Jesus "began to teach them that the Son of Man ⁷ must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." Mk 8:31-33

This pattern repeats itself right up to the very moment of the Lord's Supper.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Master, are you going to wash my feet?"

Jesus answered and said to him,"What I am doing, you do not understand now,
but you will understand later."

Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet."

Jesus answered him, "Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me."

Simon Peter said to him, "Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well."

Jesus said to him, "Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed,
for he is clean all over." Jn 13:1-15

What a lunkhead.

My favorite depiction of Peter comes from Franco Zeffirelli's miniseries, Jesus of Nazareth, in which Peter laments, "Forgive me, Lord, I'm just a stupid man."

But if Peter can make it by the grace of God, maybe, just maybe, I can too.

The Entire Cohort

The phrase that struck me about the reading of the Passion this week is an odd little detail that I never paid attention to before now: Pilate assembled the entire Cohort to participate in Jesus' scourging and execution.

So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged, handed him over to be crucified.

The soldiers led him away inside the palace, that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort. Mark 15:15-16

So how much is a cohort?

Following the restructure [of the Roman Army] by Gaius Marius (157 BC–January 13, 86 BC) the format was again changed so that the Century would be raised to its literal number of 100.

• 1 Legion = 10 Cohorts

• 1 Cohort = 6 centuriae

• 1 Manipulus = 2 Centuria

• 1 Centuria = 10 Contubernia

• 1 Contubernia = 10 Soldiers

The fact that Pilate assembled the Cohort means that this was no minor whipping of the local boy, but rather a flogging of the first order and a particularly grisly execution: a public spectacle, meant to discourage any and all resistance.

They lined up at least 600 people for this event -- and those were just the soldiers. Remember that the next time you are "just a bystander"; you are still complicit in the event even (or especially) if you did nothing.

A Non-Titus 2 Moment

This was an irritating moment which I just want to get off my chest so I can forget about it.

A certain lady offered some "fraternal correction meant in a loving way" to my wife after Mass today. Her advice ran along these lines:

"Your kids were terrible in Mass today [they weren't], so you should have taken them out. Since I have 5 kids the same as you [not the same], and my kids were never that misbehaved in Mass [oh, really?], therefore you should listen to what I say. Oh, and your friend was no help either." [thanks for nothing]

First of all, that lady is lucky I didn't hear what she said or she would have gotten some less-than-fraternal correction from me. My wife, being infinitely more gracious, merely thanked her and walked away.

Second, I didn't see that lady's 5 perfect kids with her in Mass today.

Third, we sit in the unofficial Kid Row in the back of our Church; it is well known for having half a hundred small children in various states of behavior who sit there and nursing mothers who need to head to the bathroom to change diapers at a moments notice. The crying room is useless for the number of families with small children in our parish; it would be more appropriate for the persons without small children to sit there given its size.

Fourth, our pastor has specifically stated that he desires that the children remain in the Church with their families and he doesn't care if they make noise (other people might, but he doesn't). Let the little children come to me, and all that.

Fifth, and finally the point: if you are going to offer "fraternal" correction to someone, you had better have a relationship with them before you try it. Otherwise your correction is not going to be kindly received, it is not going to have its intended effect, you may be meddling in circumstances that you have no clue about, and you unknowingly may be dealing a crushing blow to an unsuspecting person.

The scripture verse Titus 2:3-5 is popular among Protestants, in particular for encouraging older women to become mentors to younger women.

Similarly, older women should be reverent in their behavior, not slanderers, not addicted to drink, teaching what is good, so that they may train younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, chaste, good homemakers, under the control of their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited.

If this woman wants to offer her wisdom to my wife, she had better come alongside her first and offer her friendship and practical helps -- then and only then can she offer her advice and loving correction. You cannot speak to someone's life without being in relationship first.

Someone once said the steps in evangelization are: make a friend, be a friend, bring a friend to Jesus. The same goes for relationships and double for fraternal correction.