Previous Homilies Fr. C.P. Jones, O.P. and Fr. Bernard L. Keitz, O.P.

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Homily for OT XXI 08
August 24, 2008
C.P. Jones, OP

In the last few years there has been a surge of interest in the founders of our country. There have been new biographies of Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and Hamilton. Many people saw the television series on the life of Adams, with its special focus on his marriage and family life. We have been encouraged to look at the formation of our country through the personal stories of its founders, and their interactions with one another.

This new, biographical approach to history is more interesting than the more usual, abstract focus on events and policies, trends and processes. So-called “human interest” factors, such as the friendship and rivalry of Jefferson and Adams, for example, are not trivial: we recognize that behind events and policies, trends and processes, there are always persons acting, and reacting upon, one another.

The same is true about the founding of the Catholic Church. It begins with a person, Jesus Christ; and it continues with a group of people whom he gathered around him, the apostles. The gospel stories weave rich tapestries of interaction between these people and their Master, and with one another.

The New Testament lacks the features of a modern biography; there is little speculation about hidden motives, for example. But it does give rather vivid portraits of characters and their differences—as, for example, between St. Peter and St. John; and the letters of St. Paul reveal a strong, passionate and complex personality. The Church was founded by persons interacting with each other, no less than our republic.

What’s unique about the Church is that it has only one real “founder,” Jesus Christ; and its foundation begins with his relationship with the apostles—in particular, with Peter, whom he chose to be their leader. Today’s gospel shows Jesus laying that foundation in his dialogue with Peter: Who do you say that I am? he asks; and Peter replies, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Acting as the spokesman for all of the apostles, Peter is voicing their faith in the divinity of Jesus. The foundation of the Church is that relationship of faith that Jesus elicits from St. Peter. This is more than a relationship of human loyalty; it is more, even, than rational assent to a truth. Peter is not like John Adams, swearing his allegiance to George Washington as President; and he is not like Thomas Jefferson, formulating an ideal of democracy. The truth about Jesus was “revealed” to Peter by his “heavenly Father”; and his faith in Jesus as “Son of the living God” was inspired by the Holy Spirit. So, that relationship of faith which laid the foundation of the Church was the work of God himself, through the Lord’s dialogue with Peter as representative of the apostles.

Our country was founded by several remarkable persons, interacting with each other. Which of these was most important is a matter of opinion. But no one could say that the United States was founded by one man, George Washington or any of the others. We do say that the Church was founded by one man, who is divine, the Son of God. In response to Peter’s faith in him, the Lord designates Peter as the rock upon which I will build my Church.

Notice how the Church is being compared to a house in the process of being built: the builder, the active party, is the Lord, who builds his house upon a solid rock—of Peter as an individual? Certainly not! As an individual, as a “personality,” Peter was more like sand, always shifting and sliding. Jesus builds his house upon the solid rock of Peter’s faith, God’s own work in him that sees him through his shifting and his sliding—Peter’s faith, which is the faith of the apostles for whom Peter is the spokesman.

So, you see, what we say about the Church is more than we could ever say about our country. The gates of the netherworld—that is, the powers of death—shall not prevail against the Church. It can never be destroyed, because it is a house divinely built upon the rock of a faith divinely inspired.

The United States could fail, and pass into the records of history (though we hope it won’t, of course) because its founders were no more than human, and the foundation that they laid was fallible. Our country is subject to the judgment of history, because great as it is, it is no more than a human institution.

The Church of Christ, the Catholic Church, has something more than any other human institution. Jesus says to Peter, I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven—that is, divine authority within the household of my Church. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven—that is, heaven will confirm what you decide for my household here on earth.

Does that apply to all the decisions Peter might make? No. It applies only to those that he will make by virtue of his office as spokesman for the apostles’ faith. And, does it apply to the decisions only Peter as an individual will make? Again, no—because Peter must eventually die, whereas the Church cannot die. Jesus makes this promise of divine authority to Peter as the representative and voice of the apostles’ faith for them and their successors to the end of time: that is, to the bishops in communion with the Pope.

The Church is not subject to the judgment of history, but the judgment of history does tend to favor the Church, if for no other reason than that the house that Jesus built upon the solid rock of the apostles’ faith has survived nearly every conceivable historical adversity, including all the sins and mistakes of all its individual members. Empires and nations have risen and fallen, come and gone, but the Church of Christ, the Catholic Church, still stands.

TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY A 
24 AUGUST 2008
Fr. Bernard L. Keitz, O.P.

For over 500 years, pilgrims and tourists from everywhere in the world have entered St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican in Rome. They’ve stood beneath the mighty dome and gazed up at the inscription in huge gold letters around the dome. They read:
Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam.
You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.
These are the same words we heard in today’s Gospel reading.
Beneath the dome, above the tomb of St. Peter, stands the high altar of the basilica.
The dome with its text of gold points inevitably to the man who – at any given time in history – celebrates Mass on that altar as the successor of St. Peter, Bishop of Rome, whom we call the Pope. At this point in history, this man is Josef Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI.

Today in St. Matthew’s Gospel, we heard Jesus call Peter rock.
What does it mean to be a rock – a foundational rock? It has to mean that the church of Jesus Christ will depend for its well-being and growth on Peter’s leadership and guidance. He would be the first Bishop of Rome, the first Pope. The Holy Spirit will empower him to make the basic decisions needed for the new community of Christ.

Now we face a critical question. Granting that Jesus bestowed leadership authority and power on Peter, was this bestowal only personal, for Peter alone? Or was it to be continued in the line of successors of Peter as Bishops of Rome? Are all of them to be rocks on which the church is built?
Here the Bible gives us no clear answer.
Non-Catholic Christians usually see Jesus’ statement about the rock as referring only to Peter. They understand the power of the keys and the binding and loosing as continuing in the church as a whole, exercised in various ways by ministers who act on behalf of the Christian community.
The Catholic tradition, obviously, interprets Jesus’ words as applying to all the Bishops of Rome who would follow as successors of Peter. All of them, like Peter, would be rocks, on which the church is built.

This confronts us with yet another critical question. Granting the Catholic position, just what is the nature of this Petrine Office handed down by Peter to his successors? How is it exercised? What are its limits?
Pointing in the direction of an answer, I’ll make these observations.

(1) The form or shape of the papacy is not something settled for all time.
It is something that has evolved over twenty centuries. The role of the Popes has changed enormously from the time of the early church until now. We have no reason to think that the process of development will not continue into the future. What these changes might be is entirely in God’s hands.

(2) The Pope is a human being. I don’t mean to be flippant, but sometimes we’re led to wonder whether many Catholics have forgotten this. The Pope is not some kind of god to be worshipped; he’s not Christ returned to earth; he is not the church. The Pope carries out a sacred unifying office within the church, as part of the church, as a shepherd and servant of the People of God. He bears the imperfections common to all human beings. Some Popes are good; some Popes are bad.
Some Popes are saints, some leave records of sinfulness. As Catholics, we forget this at our peril.

(3) When we ask what we should expect a Pope to be like, it is right, I think, that we point to St. Peter himself as an example – Peter as he is reported in the New Testament to have acted. There is a wealth of material in the Bible that records how Peter exercised his role of leadership in the infant church. We find that his style was collegial, always consulting his fellow disciples with respect and love.
He was no autocrat. His use of authority was gentle, restrained, and humble – one might almost say democratic.
How blessed the church of Christ would be if every Pope became the kind of rock that Peter was.
 
A few days ago, speaking to priests at a conference in northern Italy,
Pope Benedict XVI described his idea of the papal office in these few words: “The primacy [papacy] is not an absolute monarchy, but a service of communion.”
May it always be so.