Saint Matthew - Chapter 26
And after a little while they came that stood by, and said to Peter: Surely thou also art one of them; for even thy speech doth discover thee.
[74] Tunc coepit detestari et jurare quia non novisset hominem. Et continuo gallus cantavit.
Then he began to curse and to swear that he knew not the man. And immediately the cock crew.
Then began he to curse and swear, saying, I know not the man. The servants who were watching the trial at the door after a while returned to the fire, and turning to Peter, tempted him again, and forced him to his third denial. They gave their reason, “Thy speech bewrayeth thee;” from his Galilean dialect. S. John adds (18:26) a further charge, for a kinsman of Malchus said, “Did I not see thee in the garden with Him?” Peter, therefore, finding himself driven to extremities, “began to curse and swear” that he knew not the man, saying, after the Hebrew manner, May God do these things to me if I know Him. May the earth open, may the lightning blast me, if I know Him. The Greek word is καταναθεματίζειν, to anathematise vehemently, to call curses down on oneself. “The more they urge and insist upon it, the more vehemently does he swear, the more obstinately does he act,” says Victor of Antioch on Mark xiv. “Consider here,” says S. Cyril (Lib. xii. on John), “what the Apostles were before the coming of the Holy Spirit, and what they were made afterwards, when endued with power from on high.”
And immediately the cock crew. To remind Peter of Christ’s prediction, and to move him to repentance. S. Luke adds, “And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter,” &c. This look, then, as S. Ambrose teaches, caused Peter, who had not noticed the first cock-crowing, to notice this, to call to mind his warning, and to begin to repent and weep. “Christ looked on Peter,” says S. Leo, “and then raised him up.” He looked on him also with the eyes of His mind, putting before him the baseness of his denial, and urging him on to repentance (S. Augustine, Bede, Ambrose, and others). And with His bodily eyes also, because Christ, after being pronounced guilty of death, seems to have been brought down to the outer hall, which was below, and where Peter was; and there turning to him, and smiting him with His gracious look, He reminded him of his fall, and recalled him to himself Christ seems to have been brought down to this hall that, while the Priests were taking a little rest, He might be handed over to the custody and insolence of their attendants. Or Christ certainly from the inner hall saw Peter standing in the outer one, Christ’s overruling providence so ordering everything, that a fit opportunity was afforded for looking on Peter.
Here admire alike the loftiness and the charity of Christ. For though already condemned to death, and in the midst of His insults and blows, He seemed as it were to forget Himself, and to care for Peter, to bring him back as a lost sheep into the path of safety, and teach us to do the like. It was so with S. Chrysostom, who, when driven into exile, and even to death, seemed to forget himself, and wrote most affectionate letters to his friends; and exhorts Constantius, his presbyter, not to be downcast at his persecution, but to rouse himself, and send apostolic men to convert Phoenicia, and write him an account of their proceedings. For the energy and courage of the helmsman is exhibited in the storm, as that of a soldier in fight, a general in the field, a physician in the paroxysm of a disease. S. Leo (Serm. iii. de Pass.) observes, “The Lord looked on Peter, and though exposed to the revilings of the Priests, the falsehoods of the witnesses, and the insults of those who smote and spat upon Him, He met His troubled disciple with those eyes wherewith He foresaw he would be troubled. And the glance of truth was turned on him in whom amendment of heart was to be wrought, as though the voice of the Lord sounded within him, and said, What doest thou, Peter? Why dost thou withdraw into thine own conscience? Turn to Me, trust in Me, follow Me; this is the time of My passion, the hour of thy punishment has not yet arrived. Why fearest thou that which thou also wilt overcome? Let not the weakness I have taken upon Me perplex thee; I was trembling for thy fate, be not thou anxious for Mine.” And therefore “it was impossible,” says S. Jerome, “that he should remain in the darkness of denial, since the Light of the World had looked upon him.”
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| And going forth, he wept bitterly. J-J Tissot |
And Peter remembered the word of Jesus which he had said: Before the cock crow, thou wilt deny me thrice. And going forth, he wept bitterly.
And Peter remembered the word of Jesus which He said, Before the cock crow twice (S. Mark adds), thou shalt deny Me thrice. And he went out and wept bitterly. “After the herald of day cried to him,” says Origen, “he remembered.” And Victor of Antioch on Mark xiv. says, “He was admonished by the cock crowing, and, as if aroused from deep sleep and brought back again to himself, he remembered that he had fallen into that very sin and disgrace which the Lord had foretold.”
Symbolically: a cock. Our own conscience is given to us by God, which cries out against us as oft as we sin, and says, Why committest thou this great sin? Why dost thou offend God? Why dost thou hurt thyself, and expose thyself to the peril of hell? This cry wounds the conscience, and stimulates it to repentance; and whoso hears and regards it feels true compunction with S. Peter, and does away his sin by penitence. So Laur. Justin de Christi agone, cap. ix. So, too, S. Gregory (Mor. xxx. 4), explaining Job 38:36 (Vulg.), “Who hath given the cock understanding?”
And he went out. Because he could not weep before the Jews, lest he should betray himself; and because the very sight of them was the cause of his denying Christ. As he was penitent, this ground for falling away had to be removed. He goes forth, therefore, and gives full vent to his tears. “For he could not,” says S. Jerome, “manifest his repentance when sitting in the hall of Caiaphas; he therefore goes away from the council of the wicked to wash away the filth of his cowardly denial with the tears of love.”
Calvin objects, that this was but a halting repentance, because he did not confess his sin before the Jews, in whose presence he had denied Christ, and thus do away with the scandal he had caused them. I reply, that he had not given them any scandal so as to strengthen them in their hatred of Christ, for they were already most determined in their hatred of Him. And if he had retracted his denial in their presence, it would have been without any benefit, nay, with hurt both to himself and them. For he would have exposed himself to the risk of relapse, and them to the peril of feeling greater indignation against Christ; and they would then have punished more severely both himself and Christ
Wept bitterly. He wept with bitter tears (in the Arabic), as though his great sorrow had embittered his heart, so as to shed bitter tears in satisfaction for his sin. “For” (as S. Bernard says) “the tears of penitents are the wine of angels”—nay, of God and Christ. Hear S. Ambrose (in Luc. xxii.), “Why wept he? Because his sin came into his mind. Peter grieved and wept because he had erred as a man. To fall is a common thing, to repent is of faith. But why did he not pray rather than weep?” He answers, “Tears wash away the sin which the voice is ashamed to confess. Tears do not ask for pardon, they merit it. I know why Peter kept silence. It was because an earlier request for pardon would have added to his offence. We must weep first, and then pray.” And shortly after he says, “Teach us, O Peter, what did thy tears profit thee! Thou hast taught us already. For thou didst fall before thou wept. But after thy tears thou wast raised up to rule others, though before thou couldest not rule thyself.”
Thou wilt say that S. Ambrose remarks in the same passage, “I read of the tears of Peter, but not of his satisfaction.” These words the Calvinists pervert, as doing away with works of satisfaction, and destroying their efficacy. But ignorantly and foolishly. For S. Ambrose means by “satisfaction” excuses for sin, as appears from what follows. “I read that Peter lamented his sin, and did not excuse it, as guilty men are wont to do.” But Peter confessed his sin with loving tears. And there is no question among the orthodox that such works are satisfactory.
S. Clement, the disciple and successor of S. Peter, records that Peter was so penitent, as his whole life afterwards to fall on his knees when he heard the cock crow, shed bitter tears, and ask pardon again of God and Christ for his sin, long since forgiven. His eyes also gave evidence of this, being bloodshot from constant weeping (Niceph. ii. 37). And lastly, Peter compensated for his fall by living to his death an austere life, feeding on lupins (S. Gregory Naz. de Amore pauperum), and also by his unwearied labours as an apostle, his persecutions, his sorrows, and, finally, his death on the cross, which he most resolutely and joyfully underwent for Christ’s sake.
S. Bridget records (Rev. iii. 5) that S. Peter appeared to her, and stated that the cause of his fall was his forgetfulness of his own resolution and the promise he made to Christ. And he thence suggests this remedy for temptation, “Rise up by humility to the Lord of Memory, and seek for memory from Him.”
From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)
In Syria the cocks are heard crowing for the first time between 11.00 pm and midnight, they crow the second time between one and two o'clock, and that with the punctuality of a clock, whilst the third crowing takes place about three o'clock. Now it was about the third watch of the night, that is to say, towards three o'clock, that Jesus left the Judgement Hall to be taken to prison where He was to remain until daybreak, waiting for the second judgment, which was to endorse officially the one already pronounced upon the Prisoner during the night.
It came about therefore quite naturally for the third and last crowing of the cock to coincide with the look of reproach from Jesus and combined to trouble the soul of Saint Peter and produce an agonised burst of remorseful repentance.
Outside the Judgement Hall groups of bystanders had probably collected at the beginning of the remarkable scenes which had taken place. In Eastern countries, where neighbours visit each other so readily, the news of what was going on would spread roundabout with great rapidity, and everyone from far and near would hasten to see what was going to happen. Moreover, the friends of Jesus, the Holy Women especially, could not have been indifferent to His fate; they are very sure to have been there, anxiously on the watch in the hope of some chance occurring of seeing Him, hearing Him speak and getting some idea, if only from a distance, of how things were going with Him. No doubt they were unaware of the presence in the Palace of Caiaphas of Peter and of John, and they must indeed have impatiently waited for them to come out to give them some account of what had happened.
Presently the uproar within became greater than ever, the yelling of the crowd could be more distinctly heard; for the sitting of the Council was coming to an end. Then the door opened quite suddenly, and Peter, beside himself with grief, rushed out weeping bitterly. The friends of the Lord surrounded him, asking questions and trying to find out from him what was to become of Jesus. Through his sobs Peter manages to make them understand that the Master is condemned to death, and that he, the chief of His Apostles, has denied Him three times. Then Peter left them, to take his way with tottering steps down into the valley, and, leaving the town, to join the rest of the disciples, who were no doubt still hidden in the caves of the valley of Hinnom.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam
Ad Jesum per Mariam
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