The Fourth Station
Peter Denies Jesus
Bible Reading
While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the priest's maids came along. Seeing Peter warming himself, she looked intently at him and said, 'You too were with the Nazarene, Jesus.' But he denied it saying, 'I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.' So he went out into the outer court. (Then the cock crowed). The maid saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, 'This man is one of them.' Once again he denied it. A little later the bystanders said to Peter once more, 'Surely you are one of them; for you too are a Galilean.' He began to curse and swear, 'I do not know this man about whom you are talking.' And immediately a cock crowed a second time. Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said to him, 'Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times.' He broke down and wept. Mark 14:66-72
Meditation
All of us are like Peter to an extent, willing but weak. We make resolutions, but don't keep them. We try to start a new life, but slip back again into a way of darkness. Yet weak as Peter was - not only at Jesus' trial but at other times as well - he truly loved Jesus. In fact, it was his love that repeatedly set him up for failure. All of Christ's other followers ran away after his arrest. Peter, however, followed along into the courtyard, only there to see his weakness take over. Almost immediately, he wept because of what he had done. A few short days afterward, Jesus would take his weak but loving followers give them divine strength to overcome human weakness.
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