He went out and wept bitterly (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Peter, the confessing, believing disciple, Peter denied his Lord on the same night as Judas betrayed him; in that night he stood at the fire and felt ashamed when Jesus stood before the high priest; he is the man of little faith, the timid man who sinks into the sea; Peter is the disciple whom Jesus threatened, Get thee behind me Satan; it is he who later was again and again overcome by weakness, who again and again denied and fell, a weak, vacillating man, given over to the whim of the moment.  Peter’s church, that is the church which shares these weaknesses, the church which itself again and again denies and falls, the unfaithful, fainthearted, timid church which again neglects its charge and looks to the world and its opinions.  Peter’s church, that is the church of all those who are ashamed of their Lord when they should stand firm confessing him. 

  But Peter is also the man of whom we read:  He went out and wept bitterly.  Of Judas, who also denied the Lord, we read, He went out and hanged himself.  That is the different.  Peter went out and wept bitterly.  Peter’s church is not only the church which confesses its faith, nor only the church which denies its Lord; it is the church which can still weep… That is the church; for what does this weeping mean other than that one has found the way back, than that one is on the way home, than that one has become the prodigal son who falls to his knees weeping before his father?  Peter’s church is the church with that godly sadness which leads to joy.

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Church Election Sermon, 
Trinity Church, Berlin, July 23, 1933

Image source:  Fritz Eichenberg, The Ninth Hour, courtesy of Fr. Patrick Michaels

Quotation source:  https://rationalfaiths.com/we-are-all-peter-dietrich-bonhoeffer-and-an-imperfect-church/