We have begun the holy season of Lent. Just as we are in our initial fervor of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we pause to celebrate a feast – the Chair of Peter, Apostle. It was to Peter, the impetuous disciple, that Jesus entrusted the beginnings of ecclesia, the organization we now recognize as Church. It was not because Peter was the most organized or the most gifted of the disciples that he was chosen. It was because of his faith. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”, he exclaimed on that day in Caesarea Philippi.
Let those words “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” be with us today as we remember Peter with his failings, but also with his great faith. Let them be with us as we enter more deeply into this holy season of Lent – especially when our own failings seem to want to overtake our determination to be faithful to this holy season. May our faith, like Peter’s sustain us in good times and in weak times.