LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Unforgettable Memories
The apostles' three and a half year experience with the Lord radically changed their lives. Their anonymous, blurred and routine existences were altered overnight by one hundred and eighty degrees. They were never the same again. Those who were once "men without letters and of the vulgar", were impregnated with divinity, found a reason to live, and became ambassadors of heaven on earth.
Just imagine what it would have meant to share with Jesus 24 hours a day, for three and a half years. How many words, how many gestures, how many silences and glances recorded in the memory? And the accent of his voice? Unforgettable, truly unforgettable.
John said a phrase that may seem like an exaggeration, but which cannot be ignored: "And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I think that not even the world would contain the books that are written. they would have to write". One day of the Son of God must have been so intense, so rich, and more significant than a thousand years of a common man, if he had them.
There are a couple of facts attributed to Peter that show the deep imprint that knowing Jesus must have left in his heart. Perhaps these facts do not enjoy general credibility, but they are very illustrative.
In the Gospel of Mark there is something that has caught the attention of commentators: it is the only Gospel in which some expressions of Aramaic, the vernacular language of the Lord, have been preserved. One of those expressions is "Talita cumi" (“Girl, I tell you, get up”) used by him when he raised Jairo's daughter from the dead.
Scholar William Barclay comments on this fact: "How did this short Aramaic expression find its way into the Greek of the New Testament? It can only be for one reason: Marcos got the information from Pedro. Most of the time, at least outside of Palestine, Peter too will have had to speak in Greek. But he had been there; he was one of the three in the inner circle who had seen this (the miracle) happen. And he could not have forgotten the voice of Jesus. In her mind and his memory she could listen to his whole life that 'Talita cumi'. The love, the gentleness, the affection of that expression would accompany him forever, in such a way that he could not even think of it in Greek, because he could only remember it in the voice of Jesus, in the very words that he had pronounced".
There is a second event attributed to Pedro that is equally moving. It is said that Peter once preached to a large crowd, but his message failed to reach the hearts of his listeners. Suddenly, he heard in the distance the crowing of a rooster. Then he paused, as if a distant memory returned to his mind, and, at once, he resumed his preaching with more ardor, with more passion, as he had never preached before. They are unforgettable memories.