Cornelius a Lapide

Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, that this night y before the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice. In Greek arap>T) 6 fi, abjure Me. Thou wilt do much worse than the others. Thy presumption deserves it. They only fled, thou shalt abjure Me. — The cock crows more loudly in the morning than at midnight This time, then, is properly the cock-crowing. It was before this cock-crowing that Peter thrice denied Christ As S. Mark says, “ Before the cock crow twice thou shalt deny Me thrice.” Thou who art now so eager to confess Me, wilt be more frequent and eager in thy denials this very night than the cock in his crowing. And yet the cock awakes the sleepers to praise God, whilst thou, by thy denial, wilt excite others to revile Me. Peter, says S. Jerome, made professions from the warmth of his faith, and the Saviour foretold, as God, what would be. And He gives the cock-crowing as a sign to Peter, in order that whenever he hears it he may remember Christ’s prophecy, may penitently 19 $ §. Matthew, c. xxvi. acknowledge his sin of denial and presumption, and seek for pardon; as indeed he did. “As God” (so Bede observes), “He foretells the mode, time, moment, and extent of his denial”