8 June 1984
Tardajos, Spain

My dear Confreres,

Is there any of us here who has not a certain fondness and understanding of Peter, the Apostle? One of the twelve whom Our Lord chose, he is the one who in the Gospels is portrayed as the most human and the one whom we can understand most easily. Perhaps we feel close to Peter because in the story of his vocation and of his life's experience we can see fairly clearly a reflection of our own experience since we answered the call of Our Lord to come to the Community and to devote ourselves to Him and His poor.

In the first pages of the Gospel we admire his generosity. Maybe a fishing boat and some nets were not a great deal to give up. Still with great generosity he left them there at the lakeside and joined the little Community which Our Lord was gathering about Him. The spectacular must have enchanted Peter for a time. The blind began to see and the lame to walk, and Peter was right in at the center where the action was. When miracles were happening every day, you would cease to wonder at them. Besides, where was it all leading? Jesus had been giving dark hints about the state of unpopularity into which He would soon fall, and not only that but also hints of the shameful and humiliating death He would suffer on the Cross. It was time to ask a searching question, and it is recorded in this morning's Gospel. "Peter began to say to Jesus: `What about us? We have left everything and followed You.'" (Mk 10:28).

All of us here remember the definitive decision we took to enter the Community. It cost us quite a bit. But then we were young and we were generous. We were surprised at times by our own generosity in those early years in the Seminary and before vows. Then came our vows and we were still generous. Perhaps after that some of us may have fallen into Peter's frame of mind: "What shall we have?" Not that we were looking for millions. We were just doing a little bit of calculation. Sometimes I feel our middle years in the Community can become years of calculation. Then came Peter's dramatic fall and denial of Christ, but how marvelously he recovered. How sensitively Our Lord helped him in the process of rehabilitation. In this evening's Gospel what delicacy Our Lord shows in not referring to Peter's fall. Then there is the depth of Peter's sincerity: "Lord, You know all things. You know that I love You." (Jn 21:17).

Peter's rehabilitation was the ability to accept the failures of the past, even when everyone knew about them, and to press on with the work of being a good shepherd and feeding the flock of Christ. The success of Peter was to recapture in his middle years something of the enthusiasm he had for Our Lord when he was young.