Crisis of Faith/Crisis of Love

by Fr. Thomas Keating

Chapter 19

Peter: The Formation of a Disciple

This account of Peter's preparation for his mission is written for those who are interested in becoming apostles of Jesus Christ and want to know how to go about it. Much can be learned from the way Jesus trained his first disciples and formed them into apostles. Peter happens to be the man most clearly characterized in the gospel. It is for that reason I will concentrate on him and on the training that Jesus personally gave him.

Part I

Peter was an ordinary guy. He ran a little fishing business on the Sea of Galilee. he lived with his mother-in-law, a fact which hints at what a fine man he was. His wife probably had died. We find no mention of her in the gospels. Peter was full of natural ardor, impetuosity, had his share of ambition, liked being a big shot (or at least the center of attention), had a commanding way of saying and doing things, enjoyed a certain amount of leadership ability, and suffered from a whole slew of other human failings. It is not my purpose, of course, to run down Peter.

What I will try to show is that, when Christ decides to choose somebody like us and to make something out of us, it is his idea not ours. He is the one who has the most stock in this business, and he is the one who is going to make it succeed--and that in spite of us!

The gospels are a mirror in which we can sometimes see what God is doing in our own souls right here and now. In the day-to-day encounters Jesus had with people coming to him and in his developing relationships with his disciples, we recognize examples of the way we are encountering him and the way he is relating to us and working in us today. He has not changed much since his Ascension. He has just become more powerful.

Let us take a look at the call of the first disciples. Jesus had led his hidden life for thirty years. No one knew who he was yet, not even John the Baptist. John had been told that he would recognize the Messiah, the Son of God, when he saw a dove descending upon him.

John had disciples of his own; in fact Andrew, the brother of Peter, and John, the beloved disciple, were his disciples first.

When the baptism of Jesus took place and John saw the dove descending upon him, he realized that Jesus was the Son of God. He started dropping hints to his own disciples: "The Messiah, the Son of God, the one whom everyone has been waiting for, has come."

One day John was at his usual place along the Jordan together with two of his disciples, when Jesus passed by. Fixing his eyes on Jesus and making sure that his two disciples heard him, he said: "Look! There is the Lamb of God!"

When they heard this remark and watched Jesus walking along, they were fascinated by him. They started following him along the bank of the river. Of course, Jesus looked around to see what was going on--nobody likes to be trailed--and said to them, "What would you like?"

They did not know what to answer. They were embarrassed to be caught trailing him. "Where do you live?" they stammered for lack of something better to say.

He replied, "Come and see." They followed. he graciously invited them into his tent, and they spent the rest of the day with him.

John, reflecting on this experience many years later when writing his gospel, recorded the exact time of the encounter: "It was the fourth hour." This moment of his life, when he first came to know Jesus, was so stamped in his memory that it could never be forgotten. It was so indelibly engraved there that he could pinpoint the exact moment as long as he lived.

At some moment in our lives, this may happen to us too. We may be riding in a taxi; we may be dangling our legs over the edge of a swimming pool; we may be reading a book; we may even be in a church--it does not really matter. At some point, if Jesus is after us--that is the main point--he makes us aware that he wants us to do something for him--something important. In substance he says, "Will you be my disciple?"

As soon as Andrew and John met Jesus, they were so enthused that they wanted to tell all their friends and relatives about him. Andrew told his brother Peter and introduced him to Jesus at the earliest opportunity.

When Jesus met Peter, he looked at him very intently and said: "You are Simon (that was his given name), son of John, but you are to be called Cephas (which means in our language, Peter)."

"Peter" is a nickname: it means "Rocky." See how human Jesus was--the first time he met this big, burly fisherman, he said, "Hi, Rocky, how are you?"

Why did Jesus call this man "Rocky?" Maybe it was because he was a big bruiser. Maybe it was because of his stubbornness; or maybe it was his head. Anyway, the nickname seems to have intrigued his friends because it has stuck with him down to the present day. Under the great dome of Saint Peter's basilica in Roma in letter eighteen feet high, you can read the TU ES PETRUS--you are rocky.

Some might contend that the nickname was meant to be prophetic of the fact that one day Peter would be the foundation stone of the Church. from the human point of view, however, no one was less like a rock that Peter. He was so unstable, impetuous, and unreliable. No one could have called him "Rocky" and meant a foundation stone. It seems more likely that the incident is a sample of Jesus' sense of humor. He meant the nickname to be taken as a joke, the way close friends will call a fat man "skinny" or a tall man "shorty." In any case, the first disciples were charmed. They were drawn to Jesus because of the very warm and human way he approached them, seeking them out on their own down-to-earth level.

More information can be obtained by reading the book Crisis of Faith/Crisis of Love by Fr. Thomas Keating.  It is offered in our