My Dear People. 

A sincere thank you to all who helped and  participated in the procession of Corpus Christi last week. Today, June 29, we celebrate Saints Peter and Paul, two great Apostles! Both were martyred in Rome. Both were buried in Rome. St. Peter is buried beneath the Basilica of St. Peter. Likewise, where St. Paul was buried, there is the Basilica of St. Paul.   

Following the death of Peter, Linus was elected to govern the church. It has been so until today! Today, Pope Leo XIV,  who is governing the church, is the one who sits at the chair of Peter. The proclamation of Peter being the head of the church comes from Matthew 16, the Gospel we read this Sunday. Jesus asks the Apostles: “who do you say that I am?”  And Peter replies, ”You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” 

This happened in the region of Caesarea-Philippi located in the headwaters of the River Jordan in the northern part of Galilee. This was a Hellenistic city mainly populated by Gentiles, and it was home to a cultic shrine dedicated to the deity Pan. 

Now, Jesus, who is safely removed from the Jewish crowds and the surveillance of his opponents,  can pose the all-important question to His Apostles: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” As it turns out, the opinion polls are divided. There is no consensus as to the identity of Jesus. Some say John the Baptist, others say he was Elijah, others identify him as Jeremiah. The common thread that unites these opinions is the perception that Jesus stands in line with the prophets. 

Jesus now puts the question to His disciples: “But, who do you say that I am?” The response comes from Simon Peter, who declares: “You are the Messiah!” Here we have a confession of faith that stands out amid the cacophony of conflicting opinions heard throughout Galilee  But what does it mean to say that Jesus is the Messiah?  

The title represents a Hebrew term that means ‘Anointed One’. In the Old Testament, we see it applied to the priests and kings of Israel, both of whom were installed in office by a rite of anointing.   Occasionally anointing is also associated with the office of prophets (1 Kings 19:16). Though the specific term messiah is rarely used in the Old Testament, it is beyond question that Israel’s messianic hope is deeply embedded in the texts and traditions of Scripture. 

Peter not only declares Jesus to be the Messiah, he also confesses Him to be the Son of the Living God. This is because, as noted above, the anointed kings of David’s line were reckoned as God’s sons (2 Sam 7:17’ Ps 27). 

This does not mean that Peter used the expressions synonymously. There was certainly a basis in Israel’s royal ideology for linking the two ideas together. But Matthew’s Gospel has made it clear that the Sonship of Jesus is utterly unique (11:27) and transcendent (3:17). He is the Son of the living God in a sense that is far more profound than the response that comes back to Peter: “Blessed are you, Simon!”

Jesus accepts the confession that He is the Messiah and God’s Son without hesitation or qualification. The reason Peter is blessed is because flesh and blood did not make it known to him, but he received this insight into the majesty of Jesus as a revelation from the Father. 

Just as Simon declares Jesus to be “the Messiah” and “the Son of the living God” in verse 16, so Jesus responds to him in similar terms, only in reverse order. He declares that Simon is the “son of Jonah” in verse 17 and then verse 18 calls him Peter. To modern ears, this is a familiar first name, the meaning of which is often no longer remembered. But in ancient times, before rise of Christianity, the Greek word rendered “Peter” (Petros) was simply a noun meaning “rock.”

Finally, Jesus mentions  “my church”  for the first time in the Gospel. The Greek word for church, ekklesia, takes its meaning from Greek Old Testament, where it is used for the “assembly” or “congregation” of the people of God (e.g., Deut 9:10; Josh 8:35; 1 Kings 8:65).

A second indication that the rock imagery is connected to the building of a temple lies in Jesus’ statement that the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against His church. In symbolism of Israel’s theology, the gates of the netherworld were the opening leading down to Hades, also called Sheol, or the Pit, which was the dark and gloomy underworld hidden deep within the bowels of the earth. There the souls of the dead sank down into a shadowy,  joyless existence. There, also in Jewish thinking, was the habitation of infernal powers that bring death and deception into the world of the living.

Peter was given the comparable role in the living temple built by the Messiah. Thanks to the blessing by Jesus on Peter, it now made the rock of the new temple neither death, nor the devil; nor would his deceiving spirits ever prevail against the Church.

Jesus then promises to entrust Peter with the keys to the kingdom of heaven. This mention of keys in conjunction with the kingdom has its basis, once again, in the Davidic traditions of the Old Testament. For most of the monarchical period, the possessor of the keys was the chief steward of the kingdom of David. He was the senior official who held the most powerful government position in Israel under the king. 

We are invited to see Peter in these terms because the statement—Whatever you bind on  earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven—is the allusion to Isaiah 22:22. There the prophet announces that “the key of the house of David” will pass from the hands of one royal steward, Sheba, to his successor, Eliakim. Of Eliakim it is said that “when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open.” Peter, too, will be installed as the chief steward of the kingdom, but this will not be a government position under an earthly head of state. Instead, he is chosen to be the prime minister of the universal Church under the Davidic Messiah. 

Inasmuch as the office of chief steward in Israel was occupied by a line of successors, it is reasonable to suppose that Peter’s authority is likewise intended for successors. In fact, Isaiah 22:22 is a text in which the focus is precisely the succession of the office from one royal steward to the next. 

This is where and how we get the papacy, and the one to succeed St. Peter who sits on his chair. The current steward to sit at the chair of Peter is Pope Leo XIV. 

[Passages from the Gospel of Matthew by Curtis Mitch and Edward Sri]

Many Blessings to all on this holy Jubilee year,

Fr. Vincent Clemente