Priest Savatie Baștovoi
Why did Christ tell Peter that he would disown him for three times before the rooster crowed? Why didn`t He say: until daybreak or before daybreak? Why was it necessary to mix the rooster in the betrayal?
Because the daybreak and the coming of dawn are something common and they pass by us unnoticed, but the crow of the rooster never passes by unheard.`
What it is cumbersome in the story with Peter`s betrayal is not only the betrayal in itself, but also the fact that Peter wasn`t even aware of his sin, not the first time, nor the second or the third. Only when the rooster crowed Peter remembered Jesus `word, `that he would disown Him before the crowing of the rooster. Only then his conscience awakened and coming out from those before whom he denied the Lord, he bitterly cried.
The denial of Christ causes first the hardening of the heart which is not able anymore to see its fall.
Thus Christ connected the betrayal with the loud crowing of the rooster to awaken Peter who otherwise would have lived for a longer time in his spiritual dumbness caused by the denial of Christ. This shows the great love of the Betrayed One Who didn`t bear to be separated of Peter as He doesn`t bear to be separated of us all who live in obduracy.
