21st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A
First Reading: Is 22:15, 19-23
Second Reading: Rom 33-36
Gospel Reading: Mt 16:13-20
“Who do people say that the son of man is?” Jesus asked his apostles. “Some say John the Baptist,” they answered, “but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
Now no one could think that Jesus was John, Elijah, or Jeremiah, for Jews did not believe in reincarnation. The apostles, who had studied Scripture as boys, must have understood Jesus to mean the enigmatic figure the prophet Daniel had seen in a vision: “one like a son of man coming on the clouds of Heaven.”
Accordingly, Jesus rephrased his question: “But who do you say that I am?”
Here, “you” is plural, as the Greek shows. We can imagine Jesus looking around at his apostles to see who would answer.
It was Simon. “You are the Christ,” he said, “the Son of the living God.”
Recognizing Simon as the one to whom his Father had revealed his identity, Jesus addressed him alone.
“You are Peter,” he said, “and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven.”
The apostles must have recognized these words as those God had used in appointing Eliakim “master of the household” to King Hezekiah—a phrase translated elsewhere in Scripture as the king’s “delegate,” “deputy,” “vicar,” “vizier,” or “regent”—what we would call his “prime minister.”
“I will place on his shoulder the key of the House of David,” God said. (A key that could unbar a door could be 60 centimetres long, so it had to be carried resting on the shoulder.) “He shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open.”
Speaking as King, Jesus was giving Peter the same office in his kingdom that Shebna had had in the Kingdom of Judah. When he returned to Heaven, Peter would be his deputy, or vicar, on earth.
Moreover, Peter would have successors in that office. Just as Shebna’s authority, symbolized by his robe, sash, and keys, had been handed on to Eliakim, so Peter’s authority, symbolized by the keys, would be handed on to his.
“The gates of Hades,” Jesus said, would not “prevail” against his Church.
“The gates of Hades” is also translated as “the jaws of death” or “the gates of the netherworld.” Like the Hebrew Sheol, Hades meant the realm of the dead, not the realm of the damned.
Had the death of his vicar meant the end of his Church, “the jaws of death” would indeed have prevailed against it. Jesus was promising that death would not prevail, for each vicar, like Shebna, would have a successor in his office.
Accordingly, just before his ascension, Jesus promised his apostles that he would be with them “until the end of the world.”
When Peter died, in 64 or 67, Linus succeeded him, followed by Cletus in 76, Clement in 88, etc. — names included in the First Eucharistic Prayer. Pope Leo XIV is the 267th Pope, Peter’s 266th successor.
Like Peter, he has the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: whatever he binds on earth is bound in Heaven, and whatever he looses on earth is loosed in Heaven.
Without his God-given authority, the Church could not be true to Christ. “Scripture alone” (a guiding principle for Protestants) has not kept Protestants united; there are now tens of thousands of different denominations. The constitution of the United States has not kept Americans true to the vision of the country’s founders; the US Supreme Court now “finds” in the constitution whatever “rights” the people want.
“O, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” we exclaim with St. Paul. “To him be the glory forever.”
Father Hawkswell has now finished teaching The Catholic Faith in Plain English. The whole course is available on YouTube in both written and audio form at beholdvancouver.org/catholic-faith-course, and will remain available until the end of August. Father will teach the whole course again, with new insights, starting August 30.
