3. To this example of a female disciple who loved much, let us add that of a male disciple who loved very much, that from both we may learn what it is to lose Jesus. Peter, inseparable, as it were, from Christ, according to his own testimony, _Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life_,—Peter, I say, when he saw his Master rise from the supper of the law, and gird Himself with the towel, pour water into a basin, and stoop to wash his feet, refused to permit Him to do it: _Thou shalt never wash my feet_. Oh, Peter! hast thou forgotten thy words to thy Lord: _Bid me come to Thee on the water_? And why wilt thou not dip thy feet in water when thy Lord cometh to thee? Thou art ready to go with Him _to prison and to death_, and that thou mayest go the better, He who giveth _His angels charge concerning thee_, is conforming thy feet that they may bear thee up, _lest thou dash thy foot against a stone_. Ay! He is placing His hands beneath thy feet to bear thee up Himself, lest thou stumble at the stone of stumbling and rock of offence. Why delay? Why shrink back? Why recoil? God loveth not headstrong piety, nor an obstinate self-will! Listen, Peter, to what Christ answers thee: _If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me_. So many words, so many lightnings! by these Peter is threatened, not with prison and darkness, not with horrors and wretchedness, not with pyres and wheels, but with the absence of Christ Himself, _Thou hast no part with Me_.… Touched by this lightning-stroke, Peter exclaims: _Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head_. 4. … 5. Fatal will be that last sentence: _Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire_. Here observe that the first portion of the sentence refers to expulsion from Christ’s presence as the chief pain of hell. Of which says St. Chrysostom: “This pain is worse than to be tortured in the flames.” And St. Bruno: “Let torments be added to torments, let cruel ministers cruelly rack, let all kinds of scourges increase their severity, but let us not be deprived of God, whose absence would be the worst of tortures.” And that this may be confirmed by the mouths of three witnesses, B. Laurentius Justiniani says, “The interminable want of the beatific vision will excel all other woes.”