August 23^rd 2020. The Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 16, 13-20

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

 

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

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

 

Summary . . . The first reading from Sunday speaks of the act of investiture of the master of the House of  David. The act consists in placing the key of the house upon his shoulders. We are told that what this key opens, no-one will close, and what this key closes, no-one will open. The cross of Christ is borne upon his shoulders and it has the power to “bind” and “loose”. It frees us from our bonds to sin and delusion. It binds us in correct relationships with each other, and with the Mother of Jesus who is given to us as our mother from the cross. In the Gospel, Jesus “tests” his disciples by asking them who they think he is. In response, Peter makes his impressive profession. What is interesting is that fatherhood is a theme in this dialogue between Jesus and Peter. Peter, son of Simon, professes Jesus as Son of the living God. In return, his name is changed to “rock”. As a rock, he becomes the foundation of the faith of others and a place of passage, a bridge (the meaning of “pontiff”) to the Father. We are all priests by baptism and called to be a rock of faith for others! This, however, is not our doing, but the work of God in us. It is God who builds the Church. Peter knew who Christ was because the Father had revealed it to him (“Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven”). When we know the Lord, we know how to liberate people from darkness (“the gates of the underworld will not prevail against it”). It is the cross of Christ that is the instrument, the key, to liberation from darkness and entrance to heaven.

 

The place where Peter made his profession was a place of worship for the different gods of the Greek, Roman and Canaanite cultures

The location where Peter made his profession was the site of three sanctuaries from different eras for the worship of the Canaanite, Greek and Roman gods. In this open-air pantheon, Jesus asks the disciples to recognize his true identity, because faith is something that must be professed above all in the face of idolatries. The Christianity of the martyrs will thus manifest itself in every age, precisely in the most alien and hostile of places. The most noticeable feature of this location was a dark cave where a spring appeared and then sank again into a hole in the rock, to reappear further downstream. We won’t go into the macabre details of the Canaanite cult, but that mouth of rock which swallowed the water was an image of the underworld, of the kingdom of death, and that is why Jesus speaks of it in this Gospel passage.

 

Fatherhood is a theme in the dialogue between Jesus and Peter. Peter professes Jesus as Son of the living God. In return, his name is changed to “rock”. As a rock he becomes the foundation of the faith of others and a place of passage, a bridge, to the Father

Jesus starts a conversation regarding his identity, and this becomes a test for his disciples, provoking the impressive response from Simon Peter. In this dialogue, Peter says something about Jesus identity in terms of his divine sonship. Then Jesus says something about Peter’s identity, again in terms of sonship. Simon, who is the son of Jonah, professes that Jesus is the Son of the living God. On account of this profession, Simon’s name is definitively changed and he becomes the foundation for the faith of many others. St. John Paul II said that becoming a rock means becoming a place of passage for others to come to Christ. Incidentally, the true meaning of “pontiff”, the title of the Bishop of Rome, is “bridge”.

 

We are all priests by baptism and called to be a rock of faith for others. This, however, is not our doing, but the work of God in us. It is God who builds the Church.

Every Christian shares in the priesthood of Christ by baptism; thus he is called to be a rock for the faith of others, a place of passage to the Father. But this knowledge of Christ, which can only come exclusively as a gift from the Father - "neither flesh nor blood have revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven" - is also and above all a work of God in us: "On this stone I will build my Church "; Christ will build it, the Church is a work of God.

 

Knowing the Lord means knowing the way to pull humanity out of darkness

The Church has a duty that is expressed in this Gospel passage with: "The gates of the underworld will not prevail against it". Some translations omit “gates” but this is the literal translation from the Greek. This original text emphasizes that the battle takes place at the gates of the underworld, where there is that horrible mouth of nothing (the rock that swallowed the spring of water) which seems to eat everything and compel fear and idolatry. Those gates will not resist the power of God at work in the Church: the Church will liberate men from death, pulling people out of their darkness. The Oriental churches represent the Resurrection with the image of Christ pulling Adam and Eve out of the black mouth of the underworld. Peter knows Christ because the Father reveals him to him, and knowing the Lord means knowing the way to pull humanity out of the darkness.