St Peter's Pride

"Now as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came.

And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, "You also were with Jesus of Nazareth."

Be he denied it, saying, "I neither know nor understand what you are saying." And he went our on the porch and a rooster crowed.

And the servant girl saw him again and began to say to those who stood by, "This is one of them."

But he denied it again. And a little later those who stood by said to Peter again, "Surely you are one of them; for you are Galilean and your speech shows it."

Then he began to curse and swear, "I do not know this Man of whom you speak!"

A second time the rooster crowed. Then Peter called to mind the word that Jesus had said to him, "Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times." And when he thought about it, he wept."

(Mark 14:66-72)

St. Peter's pride is easily seen as he tells the Lord Jesus, "If I have to die with You, I will not deny You!" When the Lord Jesus spoke to St. Peter of his denial, instead of asking for prayers and help so that this would not occur, St. Peter becomes prideful.

St. Peter's actions foretell what we will do again and again in our daily life. As children of the Lord Jesus Christ, we often let our pride get in the way of recognizing our weaknesses as humans who sin in times of pressure. We let our pride not let us ask our Savior for help when we most need Him by our side. St. Peter did not want to show the Lord Jesus, His beloved Teacher, which a time will come when he will be ashamed to announce to others that he knows Him. He was too proud to realize that all the time he spent listening to his Savior's loving and gentle teaching is not enough, and he still needs prayers and constant help from his Savior.

Some may ask, why was St. Peter, who was known as "the Rock", singled out from all the Apostles by the Lord Jesus Christ to deny Him three times? The answer to this question may have been quite simply that the Lord wanted to show His children that even the ones whose faith is solid as a rock and is built on a mountain of God's love, will be moved in times of testing. God wants us to always remember that we need Him and that we are capable of sinning no matter how strong our faith may be in Him. We must ask Him to stand by our side and ask Him to accompany us in everything that we do and not let pride keep us away from God.

We must be humbled, as St Peter was humbled after realizing that he was nothing and will never be anything without the presence of God by his side. St Peter felt pain and sorrow in his heart for denying the person for whom he left everything for and for the person who was dying on the Cross-for his sake. We must realize, as did St Peter, that no matter where we are in life we will never be strong enough to stand alone, without Him, by our side to guide us in the right direction.