Sunday, May 15 : Saint John-Paul II

In his hour of trial Peter denied his Lord three times. And so his voice was trembling when he answered: “Lord, you know that I love you.” Yet he did not say: “All the same, Lord, I let you down”, but: “Lord, you know that I love you.” When he said that, he already knew that Christ is the cornerstone (Acts 4,11) on which, despite his human frailty, there might grow in him, Peter, that building whose form would be love. Through every situation, every trial, to the end. This is why there would come a time when he would write…: “like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1Pt 2,5). This means nothing else than that we should always and at all times be responding, tenaciously and consistently, to that single question: “Do you love? Do you love me? Do you love me more than these?” For in fact it is this answer, that is to say this love, that makes of us “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people whom God has chosen for his own”. It is this that causes us to proclaim the wonderful works of him who “has called us out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1Pt 2,9). And Peter knew all this in the absolute certainty of his faith, and he knows and continues to confess it also in those who succeed him.

maronite readings – rosary,team