PEACE ON EARTH

GOODWILL TOWARD ALL MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN, BORN AND UNBORN

Thursday, November 11, 2010

And Today's Lotto Winner

The person who can tell me the first name of Mrs. Simon Peter Cephas Pope.

Did you know that the entire Vatican is called "Saint Peter's." Pretty impressive. The guy who disowned Jesus three times then affirmed his love for him three times, has Catholic Central in the Eternal City sitting on his bones (his tomb is in the basement) and named after him. This should tell you that you may recover back your love if your affirmation of love comes back as strong as your denial of it to undo it. Sort of like the reverse of the Muslim rule that a divorce is effective just by saying "I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you" three times. Jesus gave him the most important job of feeding the sheep - because he wasn't afraid to say he loved him, three times loud and clear to undo the fearful doubting denial damage done earlier.

We know that the most important figure in early Christendom was a married man. Jesus knew it too, we know, because Jesus went to the guys house and cured what we are told was the "mother in law of Simon" meaning his wife's mother. The wife is written out- except to note she had a mother who was sick. No name is mentioned in scripture. She is a generic add on.
Wife of the most famous figure in early Christendom. Some gal. The ball and chain back home with a sick mother. I can hear Tevyiah dancing to that "TRADITION!" song in Fiddler on the Roof.

The last time I went to the Vatican, I asked the tour guide "What was the name of Peter's wife?" I looked in vain for her statue. In all of the Eternal City you will not find a statue anywhere of Mrs. Simon Peter Pope. The tour guide in hushed tones (as if it were a dirty question and she was looking in the index of a Penthouse magazine) said "I don't know, all we know is we think that she was martyred right next to Peter upside down." Oh good, I thought.
She died the same agonizing painful humiliating death along her husband- didn't leave him or run off with a Roman commander- testified to the risen Lord and found herself in death as in life right next to her husband. This question earned me the scorn, scolding and snarkily rolled eyes of at least one bent out of shape italian american woman on the trip. They couldn't even handle the question.

When are they going to build the Tomb to the Unknown Mrs. Simon Peter Pope? Or even a statue that just reads "The Mrs. -she washed the first Pope's underwear and died upside down right next to him crucified on a cross."

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