” “”Before the announcement of the Passion", Peter “felt outraged and protested, arousing Jesus’ reaction”, because "he had not yet understood the deep content of His mission”. The portrait of the head of the Apostles, as outlined by Benedict XVI during today’s general audience, reveals the sign of a "Messiah as God’s man”, upset by a Jesus “who introduces Himself as the human God” and chooses “a path of humbleness and suffering”. “Giving priority to one’s expectations by rejecting Jesus or welcoming Jesus in the truth of His mission and setting aside exceedingly human expectations”: this is, remarked the Pontiff, the option that had been presented to Peter, who only after Christ’s "second call" "to conversion and following” “would learn what following Jesus really means”. Then, "even if with difficulty, Peter takes up the invitation and walks on, in the footsteps of the Master". Then, the Pope greeted the pilgrims in the different languages, in particular the Polish-speaking ones to whom he said that his impending visit to Poland "will be marked by the maxim ‘Stay strong in faith'” and by the memory of John Paul II. At the end of the audience, Benedict XVI spoke in Italian to the young, the sick and the newly-weds, “inviting them all to intensify the pious practice of the holy Rosary, especially in this month of May which is devoted to God’s Mother”.” “
