Return to the Garden

Every year during Holy Week, when the Church’s liturgy gives us an enormous amount of Scripture — two readings of the passion, good chunks of John’s Gospel for Holy Thursday and Easter Sunday, and the history of creation and salvation at the Easter Vigil — there is usually one verse or two that strikes me anew, as if I had never heard it before, or least, never in quite that way.

“Did I not see you in the garden with Him?”

That’s the question put to Peter by one of the high priest’s servants (John 18:26). In years past, I had given more attention to Peter’s denial — his third in John’s account — than the question. But the question has a deep biblical resonance. One could imagine St. John thinking about the whole of salvation history as he drafted that chapter, with Peter standing in for the entire human race.