Peter and suffering

If there was one dominant characteristic about St. Peter, it was that he hated discipline, mortification, and self-denial. He's just like the rest of us. He wanted to lay hold of the immediate and that which is joyful, but he did not want to have anything really crucial in his life. That is evidenced first of all on the Mount of the Transfiguration. Here our Blessed Lord revealed himself in his risen glory when his face shone as the sun and his garments were as white as snow. While he was in this state, Moses and Elijah appeared. And what did our Lord talk to them about? His death. Peter all the while was asleep in a trance, and when he became conscious of the transfiguration, his first thought was: 'Lord it's wonderful to be here.' Let's capture this glow. This is the kingdom of God. The gospel says, 'He did not know what he was saying.' So our Lord later took him down the mountain where there was the father with the demonic child. Peter was to go to still another, mountain, and only after climbing that mountain-Calvary- would he ever understand the glory that came after another, and very different, kind of  transfiguration at Calvary. So Peter did not understand suffering.