From a Chicken to a Rooster to a Phoenix

Easter Sunday

In the West, it is common to find an ornamental rooster perched on top of a weathervane. Equally common, but lesser known and not so noticeable, would you find this bird placed on top of the steeples of churches. There are many anecdotal, and perhaps even apocryphal stories of how the bird got there, ranging from how one Pope decreed it to be placed on church tops as a symbol of Saint Peter’s betrayal, to how Protestants used it to distinguish their churches from those of the Papist faith, which they despised. Neither accounts can be wholly verified. If we could, perhaps we have found a basis for ecumenical agreement - the rooster!!!

Today, I would like to speak of this bird as forming two book ends, or some scripture scholars would say, the inclusio and conclusio, to the story of Christ’s death and resurrection. A rooster’s crowing stands at one end - it would mark the beginning of our Lord’s Passion, the point where Saint Peter denies our Lord and flees the scene. And similarly it would be at cock crow, or as the gospel passage says, “very early” on Easter morning, when Peter will return to the tomb, this time running in haste to verify the report of the women.

After Peter’s denial something changed. Something died in him. It was a turning point moment for Peter. Peter’s own bold confidence and strength were killed. He knew he was sand, not “the unmovable rock.” He realised that he is not a noble rooster strutting around in pride but a cowardly chicken, scurrying for cover. That’s why he went outside to weep after his denial. He ran away because he knew what and who he was. A sinner in need of forgiveness! But this would also be the beginning of Peter’s conversion. His cowardice would awaken him to realise that he was not self-reliant. He was not a self-made man. Never was. Everything about him depended upon Jesus, His Lord and Saviour.

That is why Peter ran to the tomb on Easter morning. He had to know and to see for himself that Christ had risen from the dead. On the night of his betrayal, he fled the scene and hid himself. He did not even witness the Lord’s execution but heard reports of it. Now that he had received news from the women who went to the tomb, that His Lord may actually be alive (or the body stolen), nothing could keep him from running like a little child filled with excitement and hope. Is it true? Could it be true, what our Lord had promised He would do, that is, He would rise again on the third day?

So, the rooster is not just a symbol of Peter’s failure, it is also a herald of Christ’s triumph. Just like the ambivalent cross, once a symbol of shame and failure, but at the hands of the Lord, a symbol of Christian glory, the cowardly chicken on Thursday night is transformed into the majestic rooster on Easter morning. Yes, the rooster is the symbol of Peter, not just of his failure but also what happens to every Christian because of our Lord’s resurrection - like Peter, like a rooster we are called to be heralds announcing the dawn, announcing the arrival of the day after the night, the arrival of good after bad, life after death.

But there is something more to be said about the rooster on this Feast of all feasts. The cock on the weather vane always faces into the wind, so it’s a symbol of the way Christ faces into the sins and dangers of the world. Our Lord invites us to share the same direction, the same orientation. We are to stand with Him, even if it means standing against the world and its distorted self-aggrandising, self-absorbed values. The key to this experience is following the Way of Jesus and abiding in Him always, even if that Way ultimately leads to the cross. It is at this moment that we realise that the innocuous rooster is actually a magnificent Phoenix, another symbol in the early Church of Christ. Just as a Phoenix is reborn and rises from the ashes of its destruction, Christ too has risen from the dead. If we have chosen to die with Him, we will then rise to new life with Him.

It is for this reason that Saint Augustine calls us an Easter people and Alleluia is our song. Pope St John Paul II tells us, “Do not abandon yourself to despair. We are the Easter people and Hallelujah is our song.” We are the Easter people who believe that the cross transformed all suffering and pain, and the Resurrection secured the promise of eternal life. As St. Augustine sums up the idea of being an Easter People: “Let us admire, congratulate, rejoice, love, praise, adore; because through the death of our Redeemer we are called from darkness to light, from death to life, from exile to home, from grief to everlasting joy.”

Yes, today on Easter morning, if you have heard the rooster’s crow, know this, though it reminds us of our failures, our betrayals and our sinfulness, that we are a Good Friday people who turned our backs on the Lord, we would also hear in that very same cock crow, the grace of God to sinners. The rooster is both an image of Peter’s failure, our failure, but also Jesus Christ's triumph. This Easter don’t just walk. Don’t put it off till tomorrow. Don’t hesitate at the door. Don’t hide like chickens. But run, run with the love of Saint Mary Magdalene, run with the zeal of Saint John and enter the empty tomb with the courage of Saint Peter. And like a rooster bursting with joy as it welcomes the Dawn, shout at the top of your voice, “Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!”