Saint+Peter+cj15

When I hear the name Saint Peter the first thing I think of would be his weakness and doubt. When you look at those failures closer you see that they reveal his strength as a leader and his unshakable faith. Peter was different than the rest of the apostles because of these traits and Jesus singled him out to become the rock of the church. Peter also set the moral basis for the papacy through his strength. You will learn about the ways that peter was strong and a good example.

One of the first qualities to describe peter is leadership. Even though Peter may have made many mistakes he did not lose courage, for example of all the apostles peter is always the one who speaks for the apostles or the crowds of people. On time he did this was in Mark 9:2-7 in which he spoke to Jesus who had become radiant and was talking to Moses and Elijah while the other two apostles were so terrified that they were struck dumb. Peter was also the first Apostle to say I will not lose faith in you Lord, after Jesus said that one of the Apostles would betray him and the other apostles said they would not either. He is also very faithful to Jesus but sometimes he cannot physically follow the teaching of Jesus. Often his faith and courage go hand in hand like when Jesus was walking on water in Matthew 14:25-30 and everyone else thought he was a ghost and cowered in fear. Jesus then said take courage it is I, do not be afraid, Peter said "Master if that is you command me to walk on the water". And although Peter sank when he was walking on the water because of his fear he showed his faith and courage and his belief in Gods power. To put his strong belief into perspective let’s say you were walking at night and you saw a silhouette that looked like a person, flying through the air towards you, and it said don't be scared I am Jesus you would probably would not think it was Jesus, much less ask it to prove that it was Jesus by making you fly.

One of the reasons that Jesus chose Peter is because he was not discouraged from his many mistakes. Instead of being discouraged he learned from his mistakes. In Luke 24:12 when Mary Magdalene, Mary, and Joanna went to the apostles and told them that Jesus had risen, all the apostles except for Peter did not believe them, and peter ran out to the tomb to see for himself. This shows that even after denying Jesus peter still remained faithful. Another reason Jesus chose Peter was because he chose to try to learn from his mistakes. Because he chose to learn from his mistakes he knew more about what to do and answer important questions that Jesus explained to him to correct his mistakes, when he became a leader.

Although it does not seem like it, popes today could learn a lot from Saint Peter. One lesson is to never be discouraged by your mistakes, if peter had lingered on his mistake of denying Christ and let himself stay in the doldrums he would have been no better than Judas who let his guilt overcome him and killed himself. Instead of lingering on his mistakes the pope should learn from the mistake and keep on going so that they might do better next time. Also a pope should be open to criticism like peter who accepted the fact that he was wrong and learned from Jesus instead of trying to argue with him. A Pope should have the interests of everybody in mind so that he can help everybody, he can learn the interests of these people by listening to their criticism so that he can make a compromise.

Now you know that weakness is not the only trait to describe peter. although peter was weak his spiritual strength outweighed his weakness. Peter was strong in his faithfulness, courage, and leadership. Jesus chose peter because of his spiritual strength and his resilience when he made mistakes. Peter’s ability to bounce back from mistakes is a great example that popes today can learn from.