LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Man
Pilate said of Jesus to the chief priests and the sheriffs: "Behold the man!". Pilate's words were spoken with a mocking air, that of a man who holds power. There is mockery in his words, as if to say: "There you have the controversial one, the one who provokes disturbances and conflicting passions! That is the Galilean, considered so dangerous, but behold him, so helpless!". Pilate had a wide Roman culture; he was an intellectual, and as such, he indulged in satirizing with the subtleties of his refined soul.
In a place near there, at those very moments, Peter is warming himself by a fire that the servants and the bailiffs have lit, because it is cold. A woman then says to the disciple: "You too were with Jesus the Galilean!". To which Peter replies, cursing and swearing: "I don't know the man!".
Pilate said: "Behold, the man!". Peter said: "I do not know the man!".
Peter says he does not know the man. Well, he said true, in a sense, because he did not know what was in his own heart, when he presumed to defend the Lord at the cost of his life. But here he says he does not know Jesus, the Galilean. He is the man despised, betrayed by his intimates; he is the man scorned by the most loyal friend.
That Pilate despised Jesus is passable, because he had not walked with him three and a half years, nor had he prostrated himself at his feet to worship him. But that Peter did not know him, who can understand it?
Pilate and Peter stand at a prudent distance from the one who is put in a place of curse; both slink away, one washing his hands, and agreeing to have an innocent man martyred; the other slips away, swearing and cursing, lest he should commit himself to him who is bankrupt. It matters not whether they were distant or near; they all laid ground in the supreme hour. So that no one can show any merit. Neither yesterday nor today.