When Simon Bar-Jona confessed, “You are the Christ,” Jesus responded, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.”

    Peter and his brother Andrew met Jesus as they fished the waters of the Sea of Galilee, the first disciples to be called to His company. In Peter, we see the spectrum of Christian discipleship, of human fallibility and faithfulness. Rough, impulsiveness and passionate, Peter leaped from the boat to follow Jesus across the water, only to sink into the waves. He foolishly offered to build three tabernacles on the mountain of the Transfiguration and bore the anguished shame of doing what he thought he would never do, denying his master not once, but three times on the night before Jesus was crucified.

     But Jesus knew the quality of this man’s heart. He entrusted to Peter the “keys of the Kingdom,” and made him the bedrock of the Church. And, by the redemptive power of Christ, Peter fulfilled God’s expectation. His faithful apostleship did, indeed, build the early Church through oppression and opposition.

     Peter’s story has been a comfort to Christians through the ages as we remember that this flawed human could be totally forgiven, could grow, change, and profoundly serve our Lord.

     According to tradition, Peter failed God, then glorified Him a final time. As he fled Nero’s Rome along the Appian Way, Peter met Christ on the path. He asked, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “I am coming to be crucified again. ”Peter returned to Rome and was crucified head first. In his new humility, he proclaimed his unworthiness to die in the same manner as did Jesus. His sacrifice signified his transformation in the Spirit to the image of Christ; he became the man Jesus knew he could be, the Rock which ultimately could not be shaken.