Chotard Doll

Dear Friends,

“At that moment the cock crowed. Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said: ‘Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly.”

—Matthew 26:74-75

It is impossible to read this passage without feeling deep sympathy for Peter. And more, a recognition of our own failures to acknowledge the Christ.

He was acting wisely according to the ways of the world, protecting himself from sharing the fate of his master.

In our modern world we also have to make choices. Most of them won’t be life or death decisions, unless you consider it to be “Life with capital L”, the Life that comes from living in harmony with the Lord.

Maybe you have shed some bitter tears like that; I have. Some of my early life choices were pretty bad and I was suffering from the result of telling too many lies to cover my mistakes.

One Epiphany season, I reached a point where I went to my parish church, and knelt down, and wept, asking God to please forgive me and help me move forward in the pathway to real life. And because those tears were bitter and genuine, God heard me and led me in a very different direction.

So like Peter, we too can turn to the Lord and turn away from the selfishness which encourages us to conform to the world’s standards. 

Paul prays in the readings today:

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

—Romans 15:3

Faithfully,

—Chotard