Peter, Scandal And The Devil

Et a diabolo sunt illa quae fallunt specie, quae praetendunt bona cum mala inferant: sicut illud ad Adam, cum nobis humana abstulit, dum divina promittit. Et illud, quod per Petrum: Non tibi hoc erit, Domine. Triumphum crucis vacuare contendit, cum fervere se nimio amore mentitur. Nam cum Dominus loqueretur passionis suae gloriam, respondit per Petrum: Non tibi hoc erit, Domine. Venenum quam dulce serpentis: ante facit militem regis sui negare victoriam, servus ipse Dominum quam negaret. Unde Dominus servum post se mittit, scandalum remittit auctori: dicendo ad Petrum: Vade post me; et diabolo: Satanas scandalum mihi es. Et vere post Dominum vadit Petrus, quia ut cum sequeretur ad coelum, crucem resupinus ascendit. Sanctus Petrus Chrysologus, Sermo XXVII, De Scandalo Source: Migne PL 52.276b-c

And from the devil are those scandals which deceive by their appearance, which offer good things while introducing evils. So it was with Adam, that the devil snatched away human things while promising divine things. 1 And so through Peter there was: 'It shall not be so with you, O Lord.' 2 Here the devil strives to strip the cross of its triumph under the lie of the fervour of excessive love. For when the Lord spoke of the glory of His passion, so he answered through Peter: 'It shall not be so with you, O Lord.' How sweet the venom of the serpent: he makes a soldier deny his own king victory before he, a servant, denies the Lord. Whence the Lord sent the servant behind himself and returned the scandal to its author, saying to Peter: 'Get behind me,' and to the devil, 'Satan, you are a scandal to me.' And indeed Peter does go behind the Lord; so that he might follow Him to heaven, he ascended the cross head downward. Saint Peter Chrysologus, from Sermon 27, On Scandal 1 Gen 3.1-7 2 Mt 16.22