Grow Up!

On one of his many American concert tours, the great Polish pianist, Ignace Paderewski, received a visit from an ambitious young woman. The woman told the famous musician that she too had enormous musical talent and she persuaded him to audition her. Paderewski then sat through her bumbling, mediocre performance, trying to hide his boredom. When the young woman had finished playing she asked, “What do I do now?” Paderewski sighed and said, “Get married!”

In today’s Gospel Lesson, it is the evening of the first Easter and Jesus’ disciples are huddled together behind closed doors, wondering “What do we do now?” In terms of loyalty to Jesus, they had performed poorly on Good Friday. They couldn’t stand the heat, so they got out of the kitchen, as the saying goes. And the worst bumbler of all was their leader, Simon Peter, who denied that he even knew Jesus — not once, not twice, but three times. Even now, after they have been told…