“And a hymn being said, they went out unto mount Olivet. Then Jesus said to them: ‘All you shall be scandalized in me this night. For it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be disperesd.’ But after I shall be risen again, will go before you into Galilee.’ And Peter answering, said to him: ‘Although all shall be scandalized in thee, I will never be scandalized.’ Jesus said to him: ‘Amen I say to thee, that in this night before the cock crow, thou wilt deny me thrice.’ Peter said to him: ‘Yea, though I should die with thee, I will not deny thee.’ And in like manner said all the disciples.”
After partaking of the unspeakable graces of the sacrament of the Lord’s Body and Blood, they join with the Lord in a hymn, for the heart of a lover is always singing: “Speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19). Or, this may be a hymn of thanksgiving to the Father: “Give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever” (Psalm 117:1). Thirdly, the hymn could be the entirety of John 17, which could be read in the context of a song which pours out from an abundance of love in the Sacred Heart: “These things Jesus spoke, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said: ‘Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee” (John 17:1). Sing in your heart in the moments after receiving your Lord, Theophila, for this is a precious time, the heights of divine intimacy, and the prayer after communion in the mass is to secure the graces you received in you: “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1), while also representing this hymn found in the gospels. Then, by proceeding from the sacraments to the mountain, Jesus shows His desire for you to go out from the mass to grasp the highest gifts: “Be zealous for the better gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31), that you may be a sparkling, blindingly beautiful pearl of love in the heart of the Church: “Having the glory of God, and the light thereof was like to a precious stone, as to the jasper stone, even as crystal” (Apocalypse 21:11); “Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee” (Canticle 4:7). This can also mean that, after your labor and toil, you are to come and be drunk with love: “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I languish with love” (Canticle 5:8), climbing the mountain of the Lord from virtue to love: “Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord: or who shall stand in his holy place?” (Psalm 23:3), drinking deeply of the truths and sublimity offered in the mass: “The king hath brought me into his storerooms” (Canticle 1:3). The hymn of gladness draws up your heart into heavenly joy, for letting your heart rejoice and sing as one that love has found is holy joy, whereas to be weighed down sickens the heart: “Grief in the heart of a man shall bring him low, but with a good word he shall be made glad” (Proverbs 12:25). Jesus then foretells the scattering of the Apostles, that they may not despair of returning to Him upon his resurrection: “Peace be to you” (John 20:19). He takes from the prophet Zachariah: “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered” (Zacharias 13:7), to show the attendance to finding Him in all of the Scriptures: “Till I come, attend unto reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine… Meditate upon these things, be wholly in these things: that thy profiting may be manifest to all. Take heed to thyself and to doctrine: be earnest in them. For in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee” (1 Timothy 4:13-16), secondly to show that His crucifixion was in the hand of God: “Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted” (Isaias 53:4), thirdly to encourage them, in outright proclaiming the resurrection, and that He would lead them to Galilee. Now, love can be bold and even reckless, and such is seen in the life of St. Peter: “Lord, if it be thou, bid me to come to thee upon the waters” (Matthew 14:28). Trusting in this boldness and the love he felt, but not regarding his own weakness or the truth of the Lord’s words, proclaims that he would never fall away. The Lord prophecies through His knowledge of all things by His divinity, St. Peter stands on his love, which is laudable indeed, but in this is a lesson that the two hands of discipline and bold love are to make sweet harmonies together, for following the warmth of love can go astray: “For which of you having a mind to build a tower, doth not first sit down, and reckon the charges that are necessary, whether he have wherewithal to finish it: lest, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that see it begin to mock him” (Luke 14:28-29), but to focus entirely on discipline is to direct your attention to yourself and dries up the joys and delights of love: “A joyful mind maketh age flourishing: a sorrowful spirit drieth up the bones” (Proverbs 17:22). In this could also be a lesson that St. Peter trusted in his own virtue and goodness, thus why he separated himself from the others in his self-defense, and therefore was suffered to deny Jesus three times, that he may take this trust in himself and place it entirely in the hands of Jesus: “Have confidence in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thy own prudence” (Proverbs 3:5). A confident zeal is an excellent virtue, Theophila: “I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13), but is all the more beautiful when tempered by caution and attentiveness to detail and the way Jesus likes things to be done: “Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths” (Psalm 118:105). Jesus then replies that Peter would deny Him three times before cock crow, that he needed a deep lesson to trust in the words of Jesus more than his own self-knowledge, for while self-knowledge is an excellent spiritual tool, greater than this is a deep trust in the love, power, goodness, and words of Jesus: “You believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:1). The Apostles had a marvelous zeal, but without the aid of God, nothing comes to be: “Unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Unless the Lord keep the city, he wathceth in vain that keepeth it” (Psalm 126:1). This could also come from a great bravado, for even in the intimacy of the Last Supper, they discussed their own greatness: “And there was also a strife amongst them, which of them should seem to be the greater” (Luke 22:24), and to teach them to turn their eyes from glory and comparison and instead pay attention to the Beloved, he delivers them to abandoning Him, which also teaches them to no longer resist His words: “The Lord bringeth to nought the counsels of nations; and he rejecteth the devices of people, and casteth away the counsels of princes. But the counsel of the Lord standeth for ever: the thoughts of his heart to all generations” (Psalm 32:10-11). Rather than boldly proclaiming the unbreakable nature of your faith, Theophila, it is better to ask for the grace to remain faithful: “Deliver me not over to the will of them that trouble me; for unjust witnesses have risen up against me; and iniquity hath lied to itself” (Psalm 26:12), trusting that you will receive this grace and much more: “I will please the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 114:9). While you may be filled with a bevy of good desires, it is good to bring them to the Lord in prayer: “In all thy ways think on him, and he will direct thy steps” (Proverbs 3:6) and to take counsel: “In all thy works let the true word go before thee, and steady counsel before every action” (Ecclesiasticus 37:20), that the enemy may not slip in a snare, or you deceive yourself, and rather go forward with security, with spontaneous acts of love providing the seasoning for this choicest of meats, for this is the fine myrrh of the Wise Men and the the Song of Songs: “I arose up to open to my beloved: my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers were full of the choicest myrrh” (Canticle 5:5). Then you can pray, Theophila: “Delight in the Lord, and he will give thee the requests of thy heart” (Psalm 36:4).