Quo vadis Domine?

 

Crucifixion of Saint Peter

Caravaggio (1571-1610)1601

Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.

The conquest of the entire world by the King of the Kings did not seem to start very well. In fact, it began with catastrophe after catastrophe as if there was an invisible enemy doing everything a Red Dragon can do to kill that woman and her male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.
A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
Revelation 12:1-6


It really did not go well. The people of God prepared for almost two thousand years for this event officially rejected the Son of Man, asked that He is executed and then turned on His followers. They were driven away from the Synagogue and when that Jewish guy Stephan publicly told Sanhedrin that he believes Jesus of Nazareth is the King of the Jews he was promptly stoned to death as a blasphemer. And other local followers of the King in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Galilee were persecuted, some thrown to prison, some flogged forty minus one and some killed.

There was an active search among the Jewish people by religious authorities looking for the followers of this damned sect among their own – and there still is today, for example in the form of the Ministry of Interior of the modern State of Israel.

What kind of start of world domination was this supposed to be?

The key characters in the planned conquest of the world by the Kingdom of Heaven were almost systematically wiped out first in the Holy Land by the same authorities that had their King executed as a criminal and then by those executors, the representatives of the Roman Empire.

For the Jews the problem was in the religious identity of the people and adherence to the Covenant of Sinai. What is this Paul telling the Gentiles that they can be in a new Covenant with God of Israel without even circumcision? This is not Judaism; this is another religion, a dangerous sect.

For the Romans the problem was different. Their huge ancient Empire was made up of so many different nations and cultures living around Our Sea, Mare nostrum, as they proudly called the Mediterranean, that they had serious problem keeping the nation together. Religion was understood as a possible solution and so each and every citizen was required to pray for the Emperor and to sacrifice for this god of the gods. And those damned Christians refused to do so and thus were not really good citizens but source of discord and perhaps - Jupiter forbid – even rebellion.

Emperor Nero ordered a general persecution of this dangerous sect of human blood drinkers, worshipers of crucified criminal and hot headed pyromaniacs who may have even lit those old quarters of Rome into fire in 64 after the birth of Christ. In these persecutions Saint Paul was executed by sword and Saint Peter crucified head down.

Quo vadis Domine?
We have in many ways illuminating case of historical research and religious tradition in the story of Peter’s martyrdom.

Leucius Charinus has written five books towards the end of the second century A.D.
Acts of John
Acts of Peter
Acts of Paul
Acts of Andrew
Acts of Thomas

We know about him and his books mostly from the famed Church historian, Patriarch of Constantinople Fotios I (810-893). These books reflect the growing hagiography among the persecuted Christians living in the times of Roman martyrdom.

Accordingly, the Acts of Peter is full of praise for this primus inter pares, the leader of the Twelve, and the sentences and expressions are already from a different era in the Church than the New Testament.

The story is nevertheless so truly Peter that we can separate the original story from the cream whip and halos added by later devout Christians in order to make the rough thing into something more palatable for the Church.

If we strip the story in the Acts of Peter from this iconography, we get a rather simple and very powerful picture of what happened in Rome about 63 or 64.

Namely, that faithful to himself, Peter escaped from the persecutions and was walking Via Appia south. He saw Christ walking and asked “Where you are going, Lord” – Quo vadis domine? And Jesus answered “I am going to Rome to be crucified again”

Peter understood, turned back to the city and was promptly crucified – head down as he had asked since he is not worthy to die like his Master.

You can read this very true story from Acts of Peter and see how it has been softened by believers in later generations in Vercelli Acts XXXV XXXVI.



What a strange way to start the conquest of world: get your Number One man killed, the one you call Petrus, Rock, and on whom you want to build your church that the gates of hell cannot overcome.

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.   And I tell you that you are Peter,  and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades  will not overcome it.   I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be  bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be  loosed in heaven.”   Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Matthew 16:17-20 NIV

But it worked.



Indeed, Quo vadis Domine?
The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”  Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
John 21: 17-19 NIV

Lord, we do not understand you, but we believe in your leadership and we trust in you.

It has been quite a trip.