Our Scriptures today play with the same imagery: the “Rock” who is our God. In relationship with God, we find the same security the ancients found of living in a well-fortified city. The prophet Isaiah asks us to put an even deeper trust in God. Jesus takes the image and applies it to the faithful disciple who hears Jesus’ words and acts on them, comparing such a follower to a man who wisely built his house on rock.
No wonder, then, that Jesus saw qualities in Peter that prompted the nickname “Rocky.” We’re left to speculate what physical and emotional traits might have prompted the title. The Gospel stories do give us clues in a number of tantalizing moments when Peter interacted with Jesus. He accepted Peter’s profession of faith, and challenged him to follow on the way of the cross. Jesus never lost faith in Peter, despite Peter’s human weaknesses.
What traits does Jesus see in you and me? What “grounds” our relationship with Christ?
—adapted from the book Advent with the Saints: Daily Reflections
by Greg Friedman, OFM
