August 27^th 2017. Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 16:13-20

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL: Matthew 16:13-20

Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and
he asked his disciples,
"Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" 
They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 
Simon Peter said in reply,
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 
Jesus said to him in reply,
"Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. 
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. 
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. 
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. 
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 
Then he strictly ordered his disciples
to tell no one that he was the Christ.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . The first reading from Isaiah 22 recounts how the master of the palace in Jerusalem is invested in his new office. A huge key is laid upon his shoulders. When the new master of the palace uses this key to open a door, then no one will ever be able to close it again, and when he closes a door, no one will ever be able to open it again. Whenever we hear of something being laid on someone’s shoulders, we think of Christ. In what way is the cross of Christ the key to the Kingdom of Heaven? In the Gospel, Peter professes that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God. In response, Jesus gives Peter the key to the Kingdom of heaven, the power to bind and loose in heaven and on earth. What is this power of Peter and the Church to bind and loose? We think of binding and loosing as two contrasting acts, but in fact both of them are acts that lead to heaven. The Church pardons sins, looses our chains of slavery and opens the door to the Father. But it also binds people together under a common Father. Binding does not refer to closing the way to heaven. In matrimony, the Church binds two people together in an indissoluble bond. Just as Jesus bound Mary and John together from the cross, so too with his cross does he bind all of us together in baptism. This acts of binding and loosing are acts of heaven and last forever. In Confirmation, the Holy Spirit is given to us in a permanent way. The gift of the Spirit is there for me if I wish to avail of it. When we are baptised, the path to the Father is permanently open and will never be closed, but it is up to me in my freedom to traverse this path. If I profess Jesus as Christ and Son of God, but do not unite myself to my brothers and sisters in Christ, then there is something inauthentic about my profession. I do not truly know who Christ is unless my knowledge is accompanied by my allowing myself to be bound to others under a common Father.

How fickle and chaotic are our decisions, our affections, our relationships! We claim to love, or promise to be faithful, but we waver when the slightest difficulty arises. We are constantly in a state of opening and closing. The first reading, by contrast, speaks of a man who will close and never again open, and open and never again close. Surely this is possible only for God!

This Sunday we hear the celebrated profession of faith by Peter from Matthew’s Gospel: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." This passage is of vital importance and it is very interesting to see how the liturgy introduces it. The first reading is from Isaiah 22 and it furnishes us – in more ways than one – with a “key” of interpretation. In fact, this reading speaks of a very particular sort of key. The servant Shebna is being removed from his role of master of the household of the palace of Jerusalem and is being replaced by Eliakim. This was a role of great authority in the city of Jerusalem and the bearer wore a particular tunic and belt. In the ceremony of investiture of the master of the palace, the candidate was given a key that was so large that it had to be laid upon his shoulders. This image is of great symbolic significance. It is interesting that the key that truly opens and closes is one that is borne upon the shoulders. In the Bible, whenever we think of something being borne upon the shoulders, we are immediately led to the New Testament and the Lord Jesus who bears the cross upon his shoulders. The reading from Isaiah states that once this new master of the household arrives and receives the key upon his shoulders, then whenever he opens a door no-one will close it, and when he closes a door no-one will be able to open it. Opening and closing as irreversible acts; acts that no-one will be able to undo in the future. Such acts would be definitive and eternal. These acts would be opposed to modes of behaviour that are constantly in flux, states of the soul that constantly vacillate in a chaotic and confused way. How vain and fickle are our sentimental attitudes! We think we have understood things and in reality we have not comprehended even a fraction of what is important. We think we have developed mature sentiments but then we buckle in the face of the slightest difficulty. The notion that something can be opened forever, or closed and never again be opened, is the notion of something that contains within it the eternity of God.

Peter is given a particular power which links heaven and earth. He is given this power when he recognizes that Jesus is divine and is the expected Messiah

In the Gospel, we are presented with the moment that Peter learns to call Jesus by his name, recognizing the hidden truth that his master is not just another master but the Messiah and the Son of God. It is at this moment that Peter receives a key, the key of heaven, the key of the irreversible. “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" – these are the acts of God, acts of heaven, acts that proclaim sentences that cannot be appealed. Peter is to be the head of the church and the beginning of all the ecclesial acts that are to follow. Through his profession of faith in Jesus as Son of God and as the Christ, he is given the authority to bind and to loose.

Binding and loosing are not contrasting acts. Both lead to heaven. One opens the way to heaven. The other binds us to God or binds us to each other under a common Father

Binding and loosing are not necessarily acts that are opposed to each other. When the Church pardons sins, it opens wide the doors of heaven and they cannot be closed again. Baptism cannot be nullified, but people can refuse the pardon that has been given to them. Once we have received baptism, the gates of heaven remain open to us. All the baptized have a road open to them that leads to the Father. Whether we take that road depends on our liberty and our free disposition, but the Lord on his side never closes the door again. The work of temptation obscures and casts doubt on this fact. We go through moments when we believe that God is against us on account of the things that we have done. But God is never against us. It is we who refuse to accept what he is offering us. His love is so authentic that he sometimes permits our lives to be difficult, bitter or hard, but all for our good. In all things he opens the door wide to us and he permits the Church to bear witness to this openness. Apart from loosing, the Church also binds. Binding doesn’t always necessitate closing. It often means “to unite”. St Paul speaks of the “bond of charity”. We are all bound to each other in baptism. Baptism involving loosing the chains of sin and slavery to a world that is merely natural, freeing us for a greater existence, but it also involving binding us all together. In baptism we receive God as our Father, but we also receive many brothers and sisters in the Church. In the Gospel of John, Jesus unites Mary and John from the cross. To Mary he says, “Behold your son!” and to John he says, “Behold your mother!” They were not mother and son previously, but Jesus binds them together in this way. This is the power of the cross of Christ, to bind strangers together, to make isolated individuals into one single body. This is the great challenge placed before the Church. How much time have we wasted, men and women of the Church, embroiled in things of no consequence! We are called to throw open the doors of heaven and unite people together in fraternal bonds.

The Church binds us to God and to each other in indissoluble ways. If, like Peter, I truly know who Christ is and am able to profess his identity, then I will feel a bond with all my brothers and sisters in this same Christ

This marvellous Gospel announces that the road to the Father is open and that we can be united together. The sacrament of matrimony is indissoluble if it is validly celebrated and received. In other words it is bound in heaven and has eternal significance. When the sacrament of confirmation is celebrated, the gift of the Holy Spirit is surely bestowed. We are bound by this gift of the Spirit who remains there waiting for us. The door for us to live by the Spirit remains open, but it is we who do not avail of the gift. This is the drama of the human condition, the fact that we have been given freedom and are called to love freely. Upon the shoulders of the Church a key has been laid. Let us use this key! Let us open the door to God. Let us open the door to faith. Let us permit ourselves to be visited by God and enter into the assembly of first born children, as the letter to the Hebrews says. The key borne by the Church permits us all to be sons of God in the Son. Let us allow the power of faith to bind us together, to establish these happy bonds of matrimony, fraternity, paternity. It is beautiful when these bonds are lived in a spiritual way, in the faith in a common Father in heaven, and not according to the idols of the world. All of this is linked to the knowledge of who Christ is. If I claim to know who Jesus is, and am able to profess that he is the Messiah and the Son of God, but if I do not know how to follow the way to the Father and if I refuse to bind myself to my brothers, then there is something here that doesn’t make sense: I do not truly comprehend who Jesus is. If I truly knew who Jesus was, then I would also know who my brothers and sisters are, and I would automatically feel myself bound to them