+In the Name…
“He said to them, ‘But who do you say I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’” (St. Matthew 16:15-16).
The Catholic Faith which we teach and uphold here at Good Shepherd in an Anglican context welcomes and embraces the Saints of the Church. In the New Testament, Christian believers are often referred to as saints (agiois in Greek), which means “holy people.” Every Christian is to strive for holiness which means that one’s life is intentionally governed by God as the Holy Spirit progressively sanctifies the Christian moving him forward in holiness. But we know that God has chosen certain individuals to do special works for His divine purposes at different times and in different places, and when such people have served Him as He desired, it was because of their holiness – their being in touch with God’s will and putting it ahead of their own whatever the cost.
We embrace the saints because they were and are living testimonies to the reality of God. We see God in and through them. We learn about God in and through them. They are signs of the truth of Gabriel’s statement to Our Lady which was repeated by Jesus, “All things are possible with God.”
Today we welcome and embrace St. Peter, as the Feast of his confession of Jesus as Lord falls on Sunday this year.
We heard in the Gospel that Jesus had asked His apostles, “Who do men say that the Son of Man is?” In His divine nature, He knew what the word of the street about who the Son of Man was, and about Him who was the Son of Man. He asked the question to really find out what the apostles thought. Did they recognize Him as the Son of Man? So after He heard them speak of what others thought as they reported that those in contention for the title included John the Baptist, Elijah, and Jeremiah, He then asked the critical question, “But who do you say I am?” And notice that the “I am” was more than a way to phrase the question. It was a self-defining statement by Jesus of Himself being the Incarnate Son of God, the One who was equally the “I am” with the God who told Moses that His Name was “I am who I am.”
It is Peter, whom the Scriptures present as the leader of the Apostles, who answers the question by saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
He didn’t say this because he was the leader, but because, as Jesus said, “…flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” Peter was open to the Father Who had sent Jesus, and what He confessed had that openness to the Father as its foundation.
You and I know the further story of Peter. He was part of the three-member apostolic inner circle with James and John, sons of Zebedee who were with Jesus for healings and for the Transfiguration. He was rebuked by Jesus shortly after making his confession to the point of being called “Satan” for resisting the will of the Father for Jesus that He suffer and be killed. We see Jesus speaking to him first and Peter asking questions of Jesus on behalf of the other Apostles. We see him draw his sword and cut off the ear of one of the Temple soldiers who came to arrest Jesus. We see him deny the Lord three times. We hear him telling Jesus that he does not love Him as he should; but even without such love, we hear Jesus command Peter to “Feed my lambs, Tend my sheep, and Feed my sheep.” We see Peter as the Apostle who first preached on the Day of Pentecost. We see him perform miracles in the Name of Jesus as recorded in the Book of Acts. And early Church history reports that he was crucified upside down in a profound act of humility that he was not worthy to die as the Lord did.
These things and those I have not mentioned attest to Peter being someone for us to honor and imitate, and in those things (such as the three denials of Jesus) which we pray we not imitate, to recognize that God uses passionate and humble people like Peter for His purposes, showing us that human weaknesses and failings need not be a hindrance to the work of God in men and women.
Peter was very real, wasn’t he? What you see is what you get in this fisherman who was called to be a fisher of men. He in so many ways is a mirror for us to see what constitutes human fears and vulnerabilities, and what God can do with and through us if we are open to Him – if we have a passionate desire and drive to walk with and serve the Christ, the Son of the living God – if we are humble before Him as His servants.
Being full of passion can some times get us into trouble as it did for Peter, but without passion there is no vibrancy in one’s life (we’re not fully alive), and especially for what God can do with passion. Being humble, as I said a few weeks ago, is not about a life without action, but rather about a life of action as an instrument of God’s purpose for ourselves and others based upon knowing that without God we can do nothing, as Jesus taught.
Impetuous, passionate, and strong personaliteed Peter, the leader of the apostolic band, deserves our love of Peter, and our invocation of prayer to him as St. Peter for our greater devotion to and imitation of Jesus.
I remember several years when Rita and I were in Rome for ecumenical meetings and without knowing beforehand to be present when Cardinal Justin Rigali was made a Cardinal, that I, like so many pilgrims throughout the centuries, rubbed the foot of the statue of St. Peter in that incredibly large Cathedral of St. Peter. As I placed my hand on the nearly worn away foot of the statue, I prayed that I would remain grounded in the faith and order of the Church which he taught and represents throughout the ages through those who have and presently succeed him.
There’s something about Peter that has always captured my soul. I pray it is because of his passion and humility that I know that and you need to have alive in our lives.
St Peter (Petros), pray for us and pray for the Church which for founded upon you as the Rock (petra). Pray for us that we look at you to look at ourselves, so that as you followed Jesus we may also do the same.
+In the Name…
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