The Heart of Peter

Thou knowest that I love Thee.

Human Enthusiasm

The Age of Automatism

The age calls for quick results. One man and a machine for a number of years past have been doing the work of a hundred men and have made a great saving of time. Now we want to get rid of that one man and have the machine run itself. “Make it automatic,” is the cry of the day, is the demand of all and the dream of the inventor. Have fewer agents; shorten the time, and the quicker will be the results. I may write articles with a self-filling fountain pen, put them on a self -lifting elevator by which they are carried to an automatic type-setting machine. Then they are put on a self-oiling, self-inking, self-feeding, self-folding, self-binding printing-press. We need not pursue the history further. It is only one chapter in our automatic age. Those who believe the universe runs itself, do not find it hard to believe that a small portion of it may be made to do so. Some have eliminated God, who is the only self-sufficient being in existence, and for them the elimination of man is not a matter of much trouble. If they believe in perpetual motion on a large scale, why consider it madness on a small scale?

Enthusiasm – Automatic Energy

Quick results are as much desired in men as in machines. If we want physical energy right under our thumb, ready to respond to the touch at the right time and in the right place, without the intervention of a thousand agents, much more do we want moral energy equally ready, squally responsive. Because moral energy of that excellent type is not always available, men have made the saying, “If you want a thing done, do it yourself,” It would be ideal to convert all of us into self-sufficient automatons, able to conduct a modern department store or a modern elective university all by ourselves. The ideal unhappily cannot be realized. We need others; we depend upon one another. How then shall we get quick results? Prompt, responsive, automatic energy gives such results in machines. Enthusiasm will do the same in men, because enthusiasm may be very easily defined as prompt, responsive automatic energy of the soul.

Saint Peter – an Enthusiast

The topic of quick results now under discussion leads us naturally to the great Apostle Saint Peter, whose heart we set out to study. Christ, our Lord, was looking for enthusiasm. He was not to establish an automatic Church; He did not propose to eliminate a pilot from the vessel which He was launching for a voyage over the centuries of time. Peter had the enthusiastic heart, and His Master, who looked for quick results as eagerly as we do, chose Peter to be the chief agent in His Church. Peter’s life, as we see it in the New Testament, is a splendid example of enthusiasm both in overcoming obstacles and in attaining results.

His Enthusiasm Self-Starting

Enthusiasm must conquer inertia, that quality by which we keep on going when started, and keep on stopping when stopped. The first difficulty for the enthusiastic heart is to start from motion to rest or from rest to motion. Saint Peter may not irreverently be styled a self-starter. When the seraph touched the lips of Isaias with a burning coal, his heart was fired with enthusiasm, and he cried: “Lo, here am I, send me.” Saint Peter had been touched into flame by more than a seraph and a glowing coal, and he promptly responded to a word, a look, a thought of his Master. No one is first to speak and act oftener than he. He was first among the Apostles by his authority, but he was first too in other ways. Nothing could chill the ardor of his enthusiasm. Using a figure of speech, we say that those, Who discourage others, throw cold water. Saint Peter was not afraid of cold water. When he saw Christ, he was out of the boat at once to walk or wade, as the case might be. It happened, unfortunately, that he faltered and sank, because his faith was not then of the same ardor as his enthusiasm. Force or fear could not check Peter’s enthusiasm. His hand flew to his sword and he wielded it before the mob in the Garden and singled out the servant of the high-priest, who was no doubt a leader of them. Death offered no terrors to daunt Peter’s enthusiasm. “Lord, I am ready to go with Thee both into prison and to death.” There is no question of his sincerity and enthusiasm when he said that. It is true he failed in the supreme test, and as on the waters before a gust of wind or a white-capped wave his faith proved weak, so before an accusing crowd and a scornful laugh, his resolution broke and broke disastrously; but this shows a lack of other virtues, not a lack of enthusiasm.

His Enthusiasm Irrepressible

No, Peter had no lack of enthusiasm. His voice was ever ready to burst into a shout; his muscles were ever poised for a leap; his foot was ever lifted for a run; his hand tingled and ached for instant action; even his tears had the promptness of enthusiasm and gushed forth at a look. He was not like the character of the dramatist, who cried: “Anon, anon”; he cried with Isaias: “Lo, here am I, send me.” He might make mistakes, but he believed, no doubt, with the one who said: “The man, who makes no mistakes, never makes anything.” He might have to be pulled out of the water, he would not be found crouching timidly in the hold of the ship. He might have to be rebuked by his Master with the severe words, “Get thee behind Me, Satan,” but it will be noticed that he deserved the rebuke for being too far front. Peter’s first fault was that he was too enthusiastic. He was always at boiling-point or went off too quickly, because it was touch and go with him. His heart was overcharged with energy, and was released into instant flame or force. He was responsive, prompt, automatic. He had the heart of an enthusiast.

Divine Enthusiasm

Eager to Shed Its Heart-Blood

The Heart of Christ was attached to the heart of Peter because in it He saw the qualities needed for His Church. A leader wants enthusiasm in his followers. People who move when they are pushed, who cannot go of their own accord, are not desired where a cause is to be forwarded. Saint Peter had initiative and energy and so was singled out by Christ to be the Head of His Church. There was too another reason for Christ’s choice. His Heart found in Peter’s heart an answering trait. The Heart of Christ was filled with the purest and highest enthusiasm. To be prompt and responsive, to run where others walk, to fly where others run, these are characteristic marks of enthusiasm. To do all that in the face of difficulties and hardships and sufferings is supreme enthusiasm. To leap for others into humiliation and disgrace, to rush to a torturing death that others may live, that is divine enthusiasm. If the tears of Peter sprang swiftly into his sad eyes, every drop of Christ’s Heart-blood had a swifter speed, a more exultant enthusiasm. The drops came to His Heart only that they might rush forth again. When Christ out-stripped His Apostles on the way to Jerusalem and excited their wonder, it was the warmth of His Heart-blood gave speed to His steps. The same eager blood, swelling in His veins and pressing insistently upon the chambers of His Heart, made Him cry out that He was straitened until His baptism with that blood should be accomplished. When Christ lay in His agony in the Garden, the countless drops leaped forth as though they would in their enthusiasm anticipate their sacrifice of the morrow. Nor was His Heart’s enthusiasm content when the morrow came, to give of Its streams through many deep and brimming channels; It presented itself also to the spear-point, that the full source might lavish upon us the wealth of Its contents and be drained to the last drop.

Schooling the Enthusiasm of Peter

The Heart of Christ was filled with divine enthusiasm, as we know from Its sacrifices and death; but we could have known the same truth from the wonderful manner in which Christ guided and developed the enthusiasm of Peter. He who educated the impulsive heart of Peter, knew well the nature and ways of enthusiasm. He did not crush out or destroy the restless energy, which at first rushed into so many excesses. He taught Peter how to govern and direct his ardor and left him at the end with even increased energy, but all under control and centered upon worthy objects. The process is well worth studying somewhat in detail.

Encouraging an Ardent Follower

At the outset Christ awakened Peter’s enthusiasm by opening up to him a career like the one he followed. “I will make you a fisher of men,” said Christ, and Peter enthusiastically answered: “I leave all for You.” When Peter made the generous profession of faith, speaking for all the Apostles, as he usually did: “Thou art the Son of the living God,” Christ encouraged him to greater displays of enthusiasm by promptly replying, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church.” Excesses of enthusiasm were checked by warnings and rebukes. If in his enthusiasm Peter erred, he was equally enthusiastic in his reparations. He promptly and entirely refuses to allow Christ to wash his feet: “Thou shalt never wash my feet,” and when corrected, he is just as prompt and entire in his acceptance: “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and head.”

Reproving a Repentant Enthusiast

The reproofs of Christ grew milder as Peter’s training proceeded. “Get thee behind Me, Satan; thou savor not the things of God.” Christ said to him sternly when Peter remonstrated with Him about His Passion and death. But for what seems to us a far greater sin in Peter, his denial of the Lord, made more fearful by oaths and curses and lies, Christ has the gentle but sufficient rebuke of one reproachful look. That is enough for Peter. Finally, the last great encounter of these two enthusiastic hearts was the complete atonement for that denial and Christ’s most gracious lesson to His ardent disciple. It was the gentlest of Christ’s rebukes. The fall of Peter and his triple denial were not mentioned in word, not noticed now in look, but gently and kindly alluded to in a marvelous device of the best of teachers. Near the Lake of Galilee they met. Peter was still as enthusiastic as ever. He is still the originator. “I go a-fishing.” He is still ready to plunge into the water. “When he heard it was the Lord, he girded his coat about him and cast himself into the sea.” Then in the early morning light after the long night’s fruitless work, after the miraculous haul of great fishes, when the meal that Jesus had made ready was partaken of, these two enthusiastic hearts close in a mighty duel of love. Three times they encounter one another and their interchange of blows leaves them not weaker, as in duels to death, but stronger and more ardent because this was the duel to life and eternal life. Peter had set aside the pride of enthusiasm; he had not lessened its intensity. He would not put himself above others, but he would appeal to Christ’s Heart for the testimony of the warmth of his love. When Christ asked: “Love thou Me more than these?” Peter with his old confidence cried: “Yea, Lord, thou know that I love Thee.”

The Schooling Perfected

Now at last Peter was confirmed in the faith; he was the rock solidly established upon the love of Christ. He was now prepared with chastened and purified enthusiasm to be the pastor of all Christ’s flock. He was prepared, too, to look forward bravely and generously to the end which enthusiasm called for. The Heart of Christ had faced the sacrifice of death upon the cross, and the same sacrifice is foretold for the enthusiastic heart of Peter, schooled to perfection by the Heart of the Master.