St Peter

Dearly Beloved,

Recently, I attended a retreat.  The retreat was directed by Fr Scott Friend.  He is from Little Rock, Arkansas.  He shared a story about a Bishop from the diocese of Little Rock that went on record for voting against Papal Infallibility.  Fr. Scott says that his diocese is known for being the Little Rock vs the Big Rock (Papacy).  

He shared a story about his pilgrimage to Rome.  At one point he had a tour of St. Peter's Basilica.  The tour guide was a well-renowned archaeologist.  She spoke about St. Peter's tomb, and the bones of St. Peter.  

The background, he shared, is that Nero was the Roman Emperor of the time.  He loved to play with fire.  He blamed disciples of Christ for the fire that nearly destroyed Rome.  So the disciples were persecuted and crucified at the Coliseum.  Then afterwards, the Romans would light the body on fire so that people could see it from a distance.  This was a fear tactic employed by the Emperor.  

But the Romans were also superstitious.  If the people could take down the body quickly, the Romans would allow them to have a proper burial.  

St. Peter was also crucified like Christ.  But he didn't feel worthy.  So St. Peter requested to be crucified upside down.  When they removed his body from the cross, they had to do it quickly.  His feet, however, was tightly fastened to the cross.  Fellow disciples did everything they could to take his body down from the cross, but they couldn't remove his feet.  So you know what they had to do!  When his bones were later discovered, they didn't find the bones of his feet.  

Fr Scott shared with us that when he heard the story, he loved St Peter all the more.  Here, this Old Man who struggled many times to be faithful to Christ, and made lots of mistakes along the way, was faithful at the end.  St Peter understands that God is merciful.

"Peter, you are the Rock, and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."