WEEPING FOR PETER

“Judge not, that ye be not judged”
Applies to Peter, too.
To die, or to deny the Christ?
The man had work to do.

The gentle Master told him that
The test would be extreme:
“You will not know me thrice by dawn
As bold as you may seem.”

What agony of loyalty,
To love but not to tell,
To go where danger fed the flames,
To choose an inner hell

And thus survive to testify
That He was God in deed,
To witness for the scattered sheep,
To heal, to seal, to bleed.

(16 March 2009, St. Peter in Gallicantu, Jerusalem, Israel)