March 31, 2026 // Tuesday of Holy Week

Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: John 13:21-33, 36-38

Reflect on the Word // 

My heart was arrested as I stood before Saint Peter. Not the living, breathing man himself, but a first-class relic of our first pope. I paused before the wall of Apostles in a local parish’s reliquary and wondered why he had stopped me. A memory flashed before my eyes. A painful, shameful experience I’d confessed and prayed about dozens of times. But still, it lingered. 

I remember seeing an icon at the very place of Peter’s betrayal of Jesus in Jerusalem, the Church of Saint Peter in Gallicantu. A bold rooster filled most of the frame and Saint Peter, horrified, shrank in a corner, realizing what He had done, remembering Christ’s words from today’s Gospel. 

I’d experienced so much healing and forgiveness but I still felt like Peter in that icon, crouched in a corner of my soul, covering my face in shame. 

Peter presents a problem for the Christian. Because the man Jesus undoubtedly trusted the most, the one who vowed that very night to never leave him, did. Just as Jesus forewarned in today’s Gospel (see John 13:38), Peter denied Jesus not just once but three times. 

But that’s not the problem. The part that can be hard to imagine is not the betrayal, but the forgiveness. The self-forgiveness. The courage it took for Peter to receive Christ’s forgiveness and not spend the rest of his life punishing himself for his sins. 

Christ didn’t revoke the keys from Saint Peter when he fell, and He doesn’t remove His love from us when we do either. When you bring your sins to Jesus in the Sacrament of Confession, His merciful love washes over your wounds and He makes them look like His glorified ones.  

So if there’s a sin or mistake that haunts you, whether it was a lifetime ago or last night, ask Saint Peter to pray for you. He understands how hard it is to forgive yourself. And he will show you how to stand up out of the shadows and step into the light of Christ’s love.

Relate to the Lord // Is there a sin or memory that haunts you? Ask Jesus to submerge it in His Precious Blood this Holy Week and ask Saint Peter to teach you how to receive Jesus’ forgiveness.