Solemnity
Saints Peter and Paul
29 June
Matthew 16:13-19
First Reading
Acts of the Apostles 12:1-11
Now I know it is indeed true: the Lord has saved me from the power of Herod.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 34:2-9
The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.
Second Reading
2 Timothy 4:6-8,17-18
All that remains now is the crown of righteousness.
Gospel Reading
Matthew 16:13-19
You are Peter; and I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven.
Background on the Gospel Reading
Mark places this incident at Caesarea Philippi. Luke, because of the importance he wishes to give to prayer in his Gospel, places it in the context of Jesus praying. But Matthew keeps it at Caesarea Philippi. In today’s Gospel, Jesus asks the disciples for a “field report” by asking what people are saying about him. He refers to himself as the Son of Man, a term derived from the Jewish Scriptures, found in the book of Daniel and in other apocryphal writings. Many scholars suggest that “Son of Man” is best understood to mean “human being.”
As Jesus turns the question directly to the disciples and asks what they believe, Peter speaks for all of them when he announces that they believe Jesus to be the Christ. “Christ” is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word for “messiah,” which means “the anointed one.” At the time of Jesus, the image of the “messiah” was laden with popular expectations, most of which looked for a political leader who would free the Jewish people from Roman occupation.
Because Jesus has referred to himself a number of times in Matthew by Christological titles this moment is not the revelation of who Jesus is as in Mark. Instead it marks an important moment in the development of the Church. Jesus uses this occasion to bless Peter, who represents all the disciples but also has a unique role to play in the founding of the new community. Peter is blessed not because of a personal insight but because God revealed to him who Jesus is. Peter is the rock on which Jesus will build the Church.
SAINTS PETER AND PAUL
Peter, wrap your cloak around you and follow me
Today we celebrate the solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. In the first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear about Peter’s experience of being freed from prison by an angel, at which point Peter exclaims: “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.” This experience must be read and understood in light of what the community itself did for Peter: “So Peter was kept in prison, but the Church was earnestly praying to God for him.” The “liberation” is therefore closely linked to the intercessory prayer that rises to God on the part of the community.
This reminds us that we cannot save ourselves, but that God enters into the history of each one of us thanks to the prayer that rises to Him, thanks to the concern of those around us. Perhaps we too, like Peter, find ourselves chained by our fears, our struggles and our fragility. Trapped by our feelings of guilt or by thinking that nothing will change. Yet, at every moment, a prayer for our liberation rises to God; at every moment, without us even knowing it, someone is praying for us, too; and those who pray perhaps do not know whom their prayer will benefit. It is the power of faith, the joy of being a community, a Church, the People of God on their way to heaven. Let us allow ourselves to be challenged by this silent and respectful prayer that reaches us like “a gentle whisper” (cf. 1 Kings 19:9ff). A word that, as with Peter, reaches us and says: “Quick, get up… put on your belt and sandals… warp your cloak around you and follow me!”. If we now look at this text as a whole, we will notice that it follows the story of the Jewish people’s exodus from slavery in Egypt: the reference to Passover (“This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread”, says the text; cf. Ex 12:15-20); Herod’s cruelty recalls that of the king of Egypt (Ex 3 and 10); the night recalls the night of the people’s liberation (Ex 11:4); the angel’s command recalls the command given to the people: “with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand…” (cf. Ex 12:11). The author wants to help us re-read Peter’s experience as a new Exodus in which God once again intervened on behalf of His people. And as with Peter, so Jesus acts towards each one of us.
I have fought the good fight
The second reading presents us with the figure of the apostle Paul, who confides his experience to his disciple Timothy: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day…” And he concludes: ‘But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me… I was rescued… The Lord will rescue me… and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom…” Paul, like Peter, also experienced liberation. He experienced how close the Lord is and how much strength He gives to those who trust in Him. One thing is certain: courage, trust, strength… Paul finds them by keeping his gaze fixed on the Goal, where the Lord awaits him and will clothe him with his crown of righteousness. In these few words, Paul’s testimony urges us to rekindle in ourselves the gift of faith, the certainty that we are not alone on the journey, but that God is with us and accompanies us, along paths that are often hidden, towards heaven, our true homeland.
You are the Christ
Finally, the Gospel presents us with Peter’s primacy, the special role that the Lord Himself entrusts to him. He does so by asking a question: “Who do people say that I am?” It is a question of faith. Jesus is not content to be one name among many, one author among many. Ultimately, the Lord wants to lead us away from the classic formulas that attempt to reduce and sometimes manipulate God, to bring Him within our reach. Jesus is not a saviour like others. It is Peter who reveals Jesus’ identity: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus replies: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church…” Note that Jesus does not wait for Peter to become perfect – he will never become so anyway! Jesus entrusts to the fragile life of Peter the task of being a guardian, of being first in charity. Regardless if he later denies Him, abandons Him… Peter will be able to recognise his mistake, he will be willing to meet Jesus’ gaze, he will be able to follow the Lord again and, for Him and with Him, continue to cast the nets of his life for the Lord (cf. Mk 1:14ff; Jn 21). Jesus the Lord, however, knows that He has called a man, a fisherman, not an angel. And Peter has understood, and will come to understand more and more, that only in Jesus and with Him will he be able to fulfil the task entrusted to him.
In the world, supported by the example and prayer of Saints Peter and Paul
The experience and witness of Saints Peter and Paul can be an encouragement to us on our journey through life. As we conclude our reflection, let us look back for a moment at the liturgical journey we have completed so far (having just celebrated Pentecost, and then the Solemnities of the Most Holy Trinity and of Corpus Christi): Today, we are offered the opportunity of celebrating the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, as if to remind us that it is the gift of the Holy Spirit that impels us, as it once did Saints Peter and Paul, to bear witness to all that God the Trinity is Love; it was the Holy Spirit who instilled in the disciples the courage to come together, running all the risks of that period, to celebrate the Eucharist on the day of the Lord’s Resurrection; it was the Holy Spirit who made them understand that “Without the Eucharist we cannot live”, even at the cost of death. And so Peter, apparently so weak, will die for the Lord Jesus in Rome; and Paul, the persecutor, will likewise die for the One who died for him. May these two great saints help us to find the courage to love as they loved, following the example of Jesus, our Lord.
Brothers by Faith, One by Martyrdom
Pope Francis
From the earliest times the Church of Rome has honoured the Apostles Peter and Paul in a single feast on the same day, 29 June. Faith in Jesus Christ made them brothers and their martyrdom has made them one. St Peter and St Paul, so different from each other on a human level, were personally chosen by the Lord Jesus and they answered the call by offering their entire life. In both of them the grace of Christ accomplished great things, it transformed them. It transformed them, and how! Simon denied Jesus in a dramatic moment of the Passion; Saul harshly persecuted the Christians. But they both welcomed God’s love and allowed themselves to be transformed by his mercy; they thus became friends and apostles of Christ. This is why they continue to speak to the Church and still today they show us the way to salvation. And should we perchance fall into the most serious sins and the darkest of nights, God is always capable of transforming us too, the way he transformed Peter and Paul; transforming the heart and forgiving us for everything, thus transforming the darkness of our sin into a dawn of light. God is like this: he transforms us, he always forgives us, as he did with Peter and as he did with Paul.
The Book of the Acts of the Apostles shows many aspects of their testimony. Peter, for example, teaches us to watch over the poor with the eyes of faith and to give them the most precious thing we have: the power of Jesus’ name. He did this with that paralyzed man: he gave him all he had, that is, Jesus (cf. Acts 3:4-6).
Three times the episode is told of Paul’s call on the road to Damascus, which signals the turning point in his life, clearly marking a before and an after. Before, Paul was a bitter enemy of the Church. Afterwards, he placed his entire existence at the service of the Gospel. Also for us the encounter with the Word of Christ is capable of completely transforming our life. It is impossible to hear this Word and remain unmoved, remain stuck in our old habits. It pushes us to overcome the selfishness in our hearts to resolutely follow that Teacher who gave his life for his friends. But it is He who with his word changes us; it is He who transforms us; it is He who forgives us everything, if we open our heart and ask for forgiveness.
Dear brothers and sisters, this feast engenders great joy in us, because it places us before the work of God’s mercy in the hearts of two men. It is the work of God’s mercy in these two men who were great sinners. And God wishes to fill us too with his grace, as he did with Peter and Paul. May the Virgin Mary help us to receive [his grace] like they did, with an open heart, not to receive it in vain!
Angelus 29/6/2014
Sts PETER and PAUL, Apostles
Romeo Ballan, MCCJ
Peter and Paul were outstanding preachers of the Gospel, founders of Christian communities and witnesses to Christ / until they were martyred in Rome. Today’s feast associates them in the same faith and in the foundation of the Church in Rome. The author of the Acts (1st Reading) pays special attention to the Christian community praying for Peter who was in prison: “All the time Peter was under guard / the Church prayed to God for him unremittingly” (v. 5). Having been released, Peter was already free and open to other missionary frontiers. Paul, who also was in prison, summed up his life as follows (2nd Reading): how he had fought the good fight to the end; how he had run the race to the finish, keeping the faith; and how “the Lord stood by me and gave me power –Paul says– so that through me the whole message might be proclaimed to all the pagans to hear” (v. 17).
Peter and Paul are the principal pillars of the Church founded by Christ. St Peter was chosen by Christ to be his first Vicar on earth, charged with the role of the Shepherd of Christ’s flock (Gospel). Divine grace led St Peter to profess Christ’s divinity, when the apostle declared his faith in “Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). After the crisis of the passion, Peter entrusted himself wholeheartedly to Jesus, saying: “Lord, you know everything; you know I love you” (Jn 21:17). In St Peter and his successors, we can see a visible sign of unity and communion in faith and charity. (Peter suffered martyrdom under Nero in 66 or 67 A.D. He was buried at the hill of the Vatican where recent excavations have revealed what could well be his tomb on the site of St Peter’s Basilica.)
St Paul was chosen by Christ himself on the road to Damascus to form part of the apostolic college. He was an instrument chosen to bring Christ’s name to all people; he is the greatest missionary of all time, the advocate of pagans, the Apostle of gentiles. He was beheaded and buried in the Via Ostiense, in Rome, near the site of St Paul’s Basilica.
Today we pray to Christ, the founder of the Church, that Peter’s faith and Paul’s mission may enlighten our path and give us strength in our own commitment as Christians and missionaries. Today is the Church’s feast, the feast of the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church” (Creed); the feast of the missionary Church, which is a new God’s family for all peoples, as the Vatican Council said: “God does not make men (and women) holy and save them merely as individuals, without bond or link between one another. Rather has it pleased Him to bring men (and women) together as one people” (LG 9). In fact, “the pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature” (AG 2). “Evangelizing is the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize” (Paul VI, EN 14). These statements underline clearly the universal cháracter of the Christ’s mission and also the mission of the Church.
Today’s feast isn’t a celebration of the Pope’s authority; this feast reminds all of us that what really matters is service, mercy, reconciliation, love. As Jesus taught us saying: “By this love… everyone will know that you are my disciples” (Jn 13:35). The only dress of the disciples is the towel, the apron of service and love, as Jesus taught us in his words and deeds, when He washed the disciples’ feet, “on the night He was betrayed” (Jn 13:5).
The feast of the two Apostles and the “Pope’s Day” remind us that we belong to the Church through Baptism and by faith. We are the Church. In many years of missionary life in different countries in Africa, America, Europe, Asia, I have come to see that there are three typical elements of the Catholic identity. Three values, which strengthen our own faith and identity, and make a difference compared to other faiths: on the one hand, non-Christians such as Buddhists, Hindus and others; and on the other hand, different Christian denominations such as protestants and orthodox.
These values are: faith in the Eucharist, devotion to Our Lady the Virgin Mary and love of Pope. Eucharist, Mary and Pope are three values which are not open to change under any circumstances. However, this must not stop us from being open to loving and sharing everything we have / with all those whom we meet. Our faith is God’s gift, which we receive with gratitude and humility, joy and commitment to the mission, as Christian-catholics, in friendly cooperation with any person of good will, wherever they come from.
Through different routes, they
arrive at the same destination
Fernando Armellini
Introduction
With a phrase well known to us—“They were of one heart and soul”—Luke summarizes the full agreement existing in the primitive community (Acts 4:32). Yet, in the history of the church, tensions and contrasts as strong as those that occurred in the early decades are rarely recorded. The Christians of Jewish origin—jealous custodians of their people’s religious customs—demanded that they continue to comply with the requirements of the law, as a sign of loyalty to God. The more open-minded spirits instead were conscious that: the traditions of the ancients had fulfilled their task (to bring to Christ). Continuing to impose them constituted a serious obstacle to the Gentiles who wished to adhere to the gospel.
Peter—with a conservative upbringing, though not fanatic—tried to mediate between the two groups of the community, but all were a little discontented.
Paul—a fanatic traditionalist—had departed from the more rigid positions of the Jewish religion. He had come to a radical break with the past, to the point that he became intolerant of those who—like Peter—had not the courage to make radical choices. A day in Antioch of Syria, he publicly insulted Peter by calling him a hypocrite (Gal 1:11-14).
Later, relations between the two apostles were restored. Peter, in a letter, calls Paul “our beloved brother” (2 Pe 3:15). Together they gave their lives to Christ and today we celebrate their feast together. Through different paths—and very slowly—they have come to recognize in Jesus the Messiah of God.
Peter met for the first time the man who was to become his master along the Sea of Galilee. Earlier he identified him as the carpenter from Nazareth. Then he realized that he was a great prophet. Later, in Caesarea Philippi, he finally discovered his true identity. He declared: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:13).
He professed a formula of perfect faith. However, to believe in Christ does not mean to adhere to a pack of truth, but to share the life choices that he proposes. The dreams that Peter cultivated was not the Lord’s. “You are thinking not as God—he said—but as people do” (Mk 8:33).
He began to understand only in the light of Easter. He timidly confessed his fragile faith: “Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you” (Jn 21:17).
Paul has traveled a different path. At first, he considered Jesus as an opponent to fight with, a wrecker of the messianic hopes of Israel, a blasphemer who preached a God different from that of the spiritual leaders of his people. He had known him, “according to the flesh” (2 Cor 5:16), according to the religious, political and social criteria of this world. Based on these parameters, he could not but judge him a criminal, a subversive of the established order, a heretic.
On the road to Damascus he received the light from above and understood: Jesus, the crucified one, is God’s Messiah. From that moment everything that he considered a profit, he now reckon all as garbage (Phil 3:7-8).
If our experience of faith is less painful than that of the two apostles, whose feast we celebrate today, perhaps it is not equally authentic.
First Reading: Acts 12:1-11
Herod Agrippa was Caligula’s companion of debauchery. He had obtained from his friend, who became emperor, the kingdom of his grandfather, Herod the Great. He was an usurper and a clever demagogue. He was able to captivate the hearts of the Jewish people, flaunting scrupulous observance of the law and traditions. To please the more extremist fringes, he also began to persecute the Christians. They were hated by the people because they marked a departure from the ancient religious practice and had no qualms sitting down to eat with the Gentiles. He had James, son of Zebedee, killed. He arrested Peter with the intention to execute him before the people a week after Easter when Jerusalem was yet teeming with pilgrims.
Locked in prison, Peter was sleeping. His sleep can be interpreted as a sign of interior serenity but also of surrender to the overwhelming power of evil. The community, united with him, gathered and raised “incessant and intense” supplication to God.
It was night, and when all human hopes seemed dashed, the chains were broken, the iron door swung open, an angel came down from heaven and freed the apostle. Reportage or fable? Too good—one might say—to be true. It would not be hard to believe in a God who rescues his faithful in this way and that, seeing them in trouble, sends his angels to rescue them.
The book of Acts was written in the time of Domitian, the mad despot who demanded people to worship him as a god, and subjected to harassment Christians who did not bend to his delusional provisions. To instill courage and hope in these persecuted disciples, Luke reminds them how the apostles were subjected to the test since the beginning and how they have remained faithful at the cost of lives.
There is a second message that he intends to communicate. God never abandons those who put their lives at stake for the Gospel. He does say it in words but illustrates it with an incident that happened in Jerusalem forty years before. Peter was imprisoned and, when all were almost resigned to the worst, unexpectedly he was rescued.
The circumstances in which this liberation had occurred are difficult to establish and Luke was not interested in them. What he was anxious about was to show that the Lord intervened in favor of his apostle. To give a touch of freshness to the story, to keep the attention of the reader and dispose him to capture the message, he introduced in the event marvellous details taken from the Old Testament.
The central image is the mysterious angel of the Lord, blazing with light, presenting himself to Peter. When the Bible speaks of angels, we should not immediately think of ethereal creatures with wings, flowing hair and sweet features. The term “angel of the Lord” is used in Scripture to describe the action of God in the world and his effective intervention in the story (Gen 16:7-13; 21:17-19; 22:11,16ff; Ex 3:1-5; Jg 2:1-5; 2 K 1:3,15; Acts 8:26.29).
Sometimes the “angel of the Lord” refers directly to God, but more often to his human intermediary. For example, when the Lord says to his people: “See, I am sending an angel before you to keep you safe on the way and bring you to the place I have made ready. My angel will go before you” (Ex 23:20-24), he does not refer to a spirit, but to a real person, to Moses. He is the “angel” instructed to bring to fulfillment the deliverance of Israel.
We must be very cautious in interpreting these “apparitions”. The visions, the voices from heaven, the intervention of supernatural characters are often but a human language. They are used to highlight a real and concrete, but ineffable fact: the providence, the Lord’s assistance, the inner light that he grants to his faithful. The biblical authors often pass over in silence the secondary causes, mediators, and the circumstances and they indicate immediately the lead author, God who guided the event.
The key to the whole reading of the whole passage is the phrase that Peter pronounces when he realizes what happened to himself: “Now—he adds—I know that the Lord has sent his angel and has rescued me from Herod’s clutches” (v. 11). He understood that salvation was not due to his own initiative, but it was the work of the Lord.
In Rome, during the persecution of Nero, Peter and Paul were not able to escape death. No one defended them, nay more—as Clement of Rome wrote in his letter to the Christians of Corinth—“The good apostles Peter and Paul, the greatest and most righteous pillars of the Church” fell victims “of jealous zeal and envy,” probably of their own brothers in the faith (1 Clem 5:2-7).
However, there the “angel of the Lord” did an even more extraordinary miracle: he freed the two apostles not from the chains, but from the fear of offering their lives for Christ.
This is the miracle that the Lord wants to accomplish even today in every authentic disciple: to free them from the chains that keep them prisoner and keep them from running along the path outlined by Jesus.
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18
The letter from which this passage is taken is not written by Paul. It is done by one of his loyal disciples to inspire Christians of his persecuted communities to have courage. He makes them contemplate the figure of the apostle to the gentiles, the prototype of the disciple, the ideal of the brave martyr.
In the last section of the letter, he puts on the lips of Paul a moving farewell speech. The Apostle is in prison in Rome and is waiting for the impending capital execution. His blood “is being poured as a libation and the moment of his departure has come” (v. 6).
He does not talk about death, but of a departure for a long-awaited goal.
With a nautical image he says that he is unfolding the sails to break away from this bank and reach the safe haven, the heavenly homeland where Christ is.
In writing to the Philippians, he had already expressed the same desire: “For to me, living is for Christ, and dying is even better. I greatly desire to leave this life and to be with Christ” (Phil 1:21:23).
As he had done in Miletus, greeting the elders of Ephesus (Acts 20:27-38), here too, using images he takes stock of his whole life.
He behaved like a loyal soldier for which he is certain that the Lord will compliment him for his abundant commitment and manifested courage.
He competed as a serious athlete, and sacrificed himself without reserve. He subjected himself to any kind of deprivation to win the race. During the race he never swerved. He followed the rules and now crosses the finish line (v. 7).
He is old and tired for the work done and the struggles he faced. He relies on the Lord, the righteous judge who will not give him the ephemeral laurel wreath, but a glorious “crown of righteousness,” that God will offer not only to him, but “to all those who have longed for his glorious coming” (v. 8) to those who, while waiting for an encounter with the Lord, have led a life consistent with the Gospel.
In the second part of the passage (vv. 16-18), the author of the letter does some finishing touches to the idealized figure of the master. Drawing inspiration from the Psalms—which often present the figure of the persecuted and defenseless innocent—he shows in Paul the biblical image of the righteous forsaken by friends and neighbors, but able to forgive those who have wronged him and to entrust his own fate to the Lord.
These verses summarize admirably the life of the apostle. His exemplary adherence to the gospel is offered today to inspire us to live a life more coherent with the faith we profess.
Gospel: Matthew 16:13-19
A few days before his death, Herod had assigned to Philip, one of the favorite sons, the northern part of his kingdom, the land of Bashan—the current Golan. In the Bible, Golan is known for its fertile soil, lush pastures, the fertility of flocks and herds. In the most charming point of this region, fresh and plentiful waters gush from the Jordan River and from the plain, watered by innumerable streams. The scent of lush greenery rises. Philip had built his capital, in honor of the powers that be, the Emperor Tiberius, and called it Caesarea.
The locality was formerly called Panias because it was believed that, in this corner of paradise, Pan and the Nymphs had established their residence. And in this delightful frame the evangelist places the two questions that Jesus gives to his disciples: “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” “Who do you say that I am?”
The geographical context in which the incident is set gives the two questions a particular charge. The disciples are fascinated by the scenery, the comfortable life of the inhabitants of the region and by the magnificence of the two palaces of the Tetrarch. In front of this spectacle Jesus wants them to become aware of the choice imposed on those who want to follow him.
What do people expect from him, more importantly, what do the disciples expect?
Pan and the Nymphs know how to fill their own devotees with the goods of the earth. What can Jesus offer? Philip bestows wealth, positions of prestige and power to his friends. He makes them partakers of the joys of luxurious court life. Can Jesus assure something better.
What do people say about him?
The answer to this first question is simple: people draw him near to eminent personalities, to John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, the ancient prophets (vv. 13-14).
The admiration of people of all times for Jesus in undeniable. However, the respect and veneration for him are not sufficient to be regarded as his disciples.
It is not enough for him to be taken as a personification of excellent values, generally pursued by all people of good will. He does not want to be considered one of the many who have distinguished themselves for honesty, loyalty, love of the poor, abundant work in favor of justice, peace and non violence.
He wants to know what the disciples think of him: “But you, who do you say I am?”
On behalf of the others, Peter replied: “You are the Christ,” the Messiah, the Savior foretold by the prophets and expected by our people (v. 16).
The profession of faith that he pronounced is perfect. Is he aware of what it implies?
The continuation of the story (not reported in today’s Gospel passage), clearly shows that Peter, in fact, did not understand anything of Christ. He still thinks of the messiah who—more than the god Pan—will be able to give material good. He believes that he will confer glory and power to his followers—as does the divine Augustus, in whose honor Herod the Great had built one splendid temple on the source of the Jordan.
In the second part of the passage (vv. 17-20), the evangelist relates the response of Jesus to Simon: “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church ….”
The interpretation of the Teacher’s statement is not simple. Why and in what sense is Simon called “rock” on which the church is built? A simple affirmation of the primacy of the pope? No, much more.
We begin by making two observations that help us better understand this important text. First of all, we note that the “rock” as a basis of the church is talked about other times in the New Testament. This “rock” solid, immovable, is always and only Christ.
“No one—Paul says—can lay any foundation other than the one which is already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 3:11).
To the Christian communities in Asia Minor, he reminds them of their glorious condition: “You are no longer strangers or guests, but fellow citizens of the holy people: you are of the household of God. You are the house whose foundations are the apostles and prophets and whose cornerstone is Jesus Christ. In him the whole structure is joined together and rises to be a holy temple in the Lord” (Eph 2:19-21).
Peter is even more explicit. In his first letter he invites the newly-baptized to never break away from Christ because he is the “living stone, rejected by people but chosen and precious in the sight of God.” Then he develops the image and, turning to the Christians, he says: “set yourselves close to him so that you, too, become living stones built into a spiritual temple” united as you are with the “cornerstone chosen and precious, placed by God on Easter day as a foundation of the whole building” (1 Pe 2:4-6).
The second observation is the name given to Simon—Cephas—Peter in Aramaic (the language spoken by Jesus) does not mean rock, but simply construction stones.
The stone Jesus talks about is the faith professed by Peter.
It is this faith that constitutes the foundation of the church, that keeps it united to Christ-rock, that makes it indestructible and allows it never to be overwhelmed by the forces of evil. All those who, like Peter and with Peter, profess this faith, are inserted as living stones in the spiritual building designed by God.
The expression the gates of hell should not be materialized. These gates represent the power of evil. They indicate all that is opposed to life and the good of people. Nothing eve—ensures Jesus—can prevent the church to complete his work of salvation, provided she remains closely united to him, the Son of the living God.
Peter also receives the keys and the power of binding and loosing.
These two images are often used by the rabbis.
Handing over the keys is equivalent to entrust the task of managing the life that takes place within a building. It means giving the power to introduce into the house or deny access.
The rabbis were convinced of possessing the “keys of the Torah” because they knew the Scriptures. They believed that everyone had to depend on their doctrinal decisions and judgments. They claim for themselves the right to discriminate between the just and unjust, between saints and sinners.
Jesus takes up this image in his harsh indictment against the scribes: “A curse is on you, teachers of the law, for you have taken the key of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you prevented others from entering” (Lk 11:52). Instead of opening the door of salvation, they barred them, not revealing to the people the true face of God and his will.
Jesus took away from them the key which they appropriated abusively. Now it is only his.
Returning to Isaiah’s prophecy on Eliakim (Is 22:22), the seer of Revelation declares that it is Christ, and no one else, “who opens and nobody shuts, and if he shuts nobody opens” (Rev 3:7).
The spiritual edifice Jesus refers to is “the kingdom of heaven,” the new condition. The ones who become his disciples enter it. The key that allows one to enter is the faith professed by Peter.
By handing over the keys to Peter, Jesus does not charge him to be the doorkeeper of paradise or, still less, “to lord it” on the persons entrusted to him. Instead he tells him to “become an example to the flock” (1 Pe 5:3). He entrusts him to open wide the entrance to the knowledge of Christ and of his gospel. Those who pass through the door opened by Peter with their profession of faith (it is the “holy door”) lead to salvation; those who refuse remain excluded.
The image of binding and loosing refers to decisions on moral choices. To bind meant to prohibit, to loose was to declare licit. It also indicated the power to make judgments of approval or condemnation of people’s behavior and thus to admit or to exclude them from the community.
From today’s Gospel passage, as in many other texts of the New Testament (Mt 10:2; Lk 22:32; Jn 21:15-17), it is clear that Peter is entrusted with a particular task in the church. It is he who always appears first, is called to feed the lambs and the sheep and sustains his brothers and sisters in the faith.
Misunderstandings and disagreements are not born from this truth, but from the way service was done. Throughout the ages, many times it degenerated. From being a sign of love and unity it became an expression of power.
At any time, the exercise of this ministry is to be matched with the gospel, so that the bishop of Rome really is and for all—according to the wonderful definition of Irenaeus of Lyons (II century)—“he who presides over charity.”
