Let us now turn our gaze on the person of Peter and the church entrusted to his care and try to bring to our consciousness our similarity to Peter as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Even before the Jesus’ resurrection, Peter already occupied a privileged position among the Twelve, a position that made him a unique witness to Jesus. On many occasions, Peter spoke on behalf of the Twelve. With James and John he belonged to the group of three close friends of Jesus, and within the group of three, Peter was pre-eminent. But probably the most important indication of Peter’s being a witness to the faith about Jesus is found in Matthew 16:13-23. When Jesus asked them in Caesarea Philippi, “Who do you say that I am?” it was Peter who replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And with Peter, we also professed the same faith, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!”
We may ask the question, “What type of rock is Peter?” We can get a hint from Jesus’ reaction to Peter’s confession. Jesus said, “Blest are you Simon, son of John, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” In other words, the solidity of Peter’s confession is not due to “flesh and blood”, to his human qualities and capabilities. We have seen already how limited Peter’s human capabilities were, how helpless and unproductive this fisherman was in his field of expertise, fishing! He could not have produced, humanly speaking, such a lofty spiritual insight. Jesus attributed Peter’s faith to the revelation of the Father. It is the Father’s grace, it is God’s mercy.
When Peter allowed ‘flesh and blood’ to dictate on him. After confessing Jesus as the Messiah, Peter heard how Jesus would become a suffering, humiliated Messiah, according to God’s plan. At once, Peter interjected, “God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” Then Jesus rebuked him, “Get behind me, Satan. You are making me trip and fall. You are not judging by God’s but by human standards.” The rock has become a stumbling block so soon when “flesh and blood” determined his standards. One theologian commented, “Left to his own resources, the one who by God’s grace is permitted to be the bedrock is a stone on the path that makes the foot stumble.” The rock can become a scandal, a stumbling block. Peter is rock only when he relies, not on “flesh and blood” but on the grace and mercy of God.
To Peter who was promised God’s faithful help, to Peter whom Jesus promised to pray for in the Last Supper, so that his faith may not falter (Lk 22:32), to this same Peter, Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven, the keys of binding and loosing. These are the keys of forgiveness and mercy that Peter himself needed countless times, for him to remain the true rock of faith. Peter is not only the bearer of the keys of forgiveness but more often the recipient of forgiveness and mercy. The Church entrusted to Peter is no different from him. Pope Benedict once said, “The Church is founded upon forgiveness. Peter himself is the personal embodiment of this truth, for he is permitted to be the bearer of the keys after having stumbled, confessed, and received the grace of pardon. The Church is by nature the home of forgiveness, and it is thus that chaos is banished from within her. She is held together by forgiveness, and Peter is the perpetual living reminder of this reality: the church is not a communion of the perfect, but a communion of sinners who need and seek forgiveness. The keys to the kingdom of heaven are the words of forgiveness, a human being cannot speak of oneself but granted by God’s power alone.”
Two things we can learn from the gospel reading of today: (1) That the person of Peter is the complete embodiment of all of us here, who always seek forgiveness from God, because of the many failing we have, for the many times we become stumbling blocks to others instead of being a source of blessing. (2) We are call church not because we are saints but rather as a church we seek God’s mercy. And as a church we journey and we follow Jesus and as church we are asked to make God’s will our own in many ways, large or small. The church who journey to grow more and more in holiness as Jesus, we are church because we journey toward conversion not only of mind but also from our hearts of stone. As church we received the same forgiveness and mercy given to Peter, and like Peter we are also asked to give forgiveness to other who may have wronged us. It’s a hard asked, but Jesus did it. So Jesus’ hope we can also do it. This is who we are and this is what Jesus our Lord expects us to be as church.
Fr. Joselito Layug SSP
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