Lent 

A Lenten message from Bishop O'Connell:

It is clear from the beginning of this holy season of Lent that the Church wants us to focus in a special way on the passion of Christ as the path to Easter glory. One cannot do that without recourse to the four Gospels and what are referred to as the “passion narratives” there, those sections of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that take up the story of Jesus saving death on the cross. I would like to highlight one “part” of that story.

Except for Jesus, no figure receives more attention in the passion narratives than Peter. The evangelists differ in recounting many significant details about Jesus’ final days – what he said at the Last Supper, who was present at his crucifixion, what words he spoke from the cross – but the four Gospels agree in relating that Peter denied Jesus three times.  Nowhere else in the passion narratives do all the Gospels so specifically converge. 

The story of Peter’s denials in the four Gospels is an extraordinarily vivid one, filled with colorful details which captured the imagination of the early Christians and remained fixed in their memories:

a. Peter’s following Jesus timidly from a distance to the courtyard of the high priest; his warming himself at a blazing fire, where a servant girl recognizes him;

b. his slipping outside furtively to escape her persistent

c. the bystanders’ recognizing his Galilean accent;

d. his regressing in three steps: from evasion, to denial, to a an oath;

e. the cock’s crowing and Jesus’ glancing at Peter at precisely the moment of the third denial;

f. his remembering Jesus’ prophetic words and weeping bitterly.

Continue reading Bishop O'Connell's Lenten reflection HERE.