Trivia Question: What was Jesus’ last miracle? No, no, not his Resurrection; let’s leave that grand event to God the Father. Actually during his public lifetime Jesus worked 37 miracles, starting at the wedding feast at Cana. But the last miracle Jesus performed before his death was the healing of the servant Malchus’ ear in the Garden of Gethsemani. And this is important for worshipers today for it involved the impetuous St. Peter, quick to rally to the defense of his Master in this instance but somewhat reluctant to accept the office of chief shepherd from Christ in this coming Sunday’s Gospel.
Peter is clearly prominent in all four Gospel accounts and in the Acts of Apostles. Early on Matthew, Mark and Luke all relate the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. Peter’s occupation as a fisherman, along with his brother Andrew, was a serious business to which Peter returned even after the resurrection. Peter owned the boat that Jesus used to preach to the multitudes who were pressing on him at the lake shore. Christ later insisted Peter’s nets be lowered whereupon a huge number of fish was caught. Matthew relates Peter even walking on water for a moment but then taking Christ’s saving hand when his faith wavers. Jesus labelled Peter and his brother Andrew “Fishers of Men,” an early reference to their later apostolic mission. Peter was among the few elect who witnessed the Christ’s transfiguration on Mount Tabor and among the few chosen to witness firsthand the Master’s agony at Gethsemane.
All four Gospel accounts relate the rightly celebrated confession of St. Peter proclaiming Jesus to be “the Christ.” Three of the narratives occur on the north edge of Palestine. Matthew recalls: “‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’ Simon Peter answered: ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’” Mark relates the same story: “‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’ Peter answered: ‘You are the Messiah.’ And Luke concurs: “‘But what about you?’ he asked, ‘Who do you say I am?’ Peter answered: ‘God’s Messiah.’” John narrates a similar act of faith at Capernaum: “So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
Yet St. Peter’s faith was still a little shaky. Recall that during the Last Supper, Jesus chose to wash his disciples’ feet. Peter at first refused to let Jesus wash his feet. So Jesus told him: “If I do not wash you, you will have no part with me.” Peter then submissively replied: “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head”.
In this coming Sunday’s Gospel account, St. John will ratify the bold account of St. Peter’s premiership already found in St. Matthew’s Gospel narrative. Matthew had recalled Jesus solemnly avowing: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Now once again, the solemn charge of Christ to St. Peter to be the chief shepherd of the flock is to be re-affirmed. “When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,* “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”* He said to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He then said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” The threefold confession of Peter here is clearly meant to counteract Peter’s earlier threefold denial of Christ during the Passion. But more importantly, Vatican Council I cited these verses when defining that Jesus after his resurrection gave Peter the jurisdiction of supreme shepherd and ruler over Christ’s flock.
The prominence of St. Peter in all four Gospel accounts — written at different times and in different places — strikingly affirms the role of St. Peter as chief shepherd during his lifetime, a task continuing now through the Office of Peter exercised by his successors the Popes as bishops of Rome.
