In today's Gospel, Jesus entrusts his Apostle Simon with the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, with the name "Peter" (meaning rock) and some pretty powerful promises. Why did he choose Peter instead of one of the others? Would John not have been a better choice? Today's Gospel is a reminder that the Popes are (like Peter) fallible men, capable of both great sanctity or grave scandal. If we do nothing else today we should pray for our Pope, a great weight has been placed on his shoulders and he needs the help of our prayers to bear it.
Thirteen years ago I went off to University, I went to Durham and had chosen to live as a member of the St John’s College Community. At the time, as I believe today, Saint John’s put a premium on its identity as a Christian College: it was home to an Anglican theological college (Cranmer Hall) and to the Wesley Methodist centre, for the training of Anglican ordinands and Methodist ministers. It wasn’t just the Vicars (as we called them) who shared this ethos, but the students; a substantial number of the undergrads, perhaps a third or even half in any given year were professing Christians. The most active Christian group in college, as well as in the University as a whole, was the evangelical-led Christian Union (the CU). Our own College CU had an innovative way of sharing the Gospel – they called it text a toastie. On certain evenings you’d text a certain phone number with a question about God or religion, along with your order from the college toastie bar, and a member of the CU would appear minutes later with a freshly-made toastie and an answer to your question.
In the year I lived in college I had great fun with the text a toastie service, not least because the other young man I shared my first year room with was one of the ringleaders of the evangelicals in college, and we used to stay up until two in the morning discussing (arguing) the finer points of Christian theology. I used to think up my most obnoxiously Catholic questions to text these enthusiastic evangelical undergraduates, and one of them (the evening they very politely asked me to stop using the text a toastie) involved today’s Gospel. I texted what did Jesus actually mean when he called Peter the Rock? What does it mean that Peter holds the keys to the kingdom?
I remember the answer I got, something unsatisfying about the rock not actually being Peter but the town of Caesarea Philippi, as a metaphor for the whole broken world upon which Christ was to build the Church. A brief glance over this Gospel in Greek or Latin shows that argument to be a nonsense, in fact, many Protestant readings of this gospel, don't stand up to even basic linguistic analysis) and yet, there is something in the Protestant refusal to read this passage in the way that we Catholics read it that forces us to examine it more closely.
What is actually going on in today’s Gospel? What is Jesus doing?
Jesus has the disciples gathered around Him and asks them; Who do people say the Son of Man is? He is asking what the rumours are, what they have heard. They give him some answers, perhaps a prophet like John the Baptist, or Elijah, or Jeremiah come again? This is not the right answer, so Jesus turns to the disciples and asks them who do you say that I am? They are silent, the Master is asking them how they are teaching the crowds, they don’t want to get it wrong. Simon, son of Jonah, speaks up (as he often does in the Gospels);
You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
In response to this confession of faith Jesus says two things. First, he gives Simon a new name; he calls Him Peter, a name which means Rock, he says he will build the Church upon that Rock and that hell will never prevail against it. Second, he uses a symbol from the time of the Kingdom, he says to Simon-Peter
‘I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’
The Keys are a potent symbol of power. In the old Kingdom, the Chief Advisor to the King, like a Prime Minister or Prince Regent, would be given the Keys to the palace and the treasury – the Keys and the power to lock and unlock are a symbol of the power of judgment, the power to speak and make decisions on behalf of the King.
The Kings of the old Kingdom appointed men to hold the keys on their behalf, to exercise their Royal authority. This is what is happening in the first reading. Shebna has been dismissed from office and replaced by Eliakim, and the Prophet speaks these words of the new Chief Minister in Judah;
‘he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah. I place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; should he open, no one shall close, should he close, no one shall open.’
Jesus, the Messiah, has proclaimed the new Kingdom, the Kingdom of heaven, and has chosen Peter as his regent; he has given him the keys. For the early Church, Peter was the point of reference; Paul calls him one of the three pillars of the Church (along with James and John), whenever the twelve are mentioned Peter always stands apart from them, the only one mentioned by name – it is always Peter and the twelve. He is the Father of the new community, the governor and the judge, like the Regents of the Kingdom of David.
Why was Peter chosen? Peter always spoke too quickly and without thinking would often say the wrong thing. Jesus often told him off. In practically the next passage of this gospel, Jesus, get so angry with Peter he turns and says to him "get behind me Satan" – you are not thinking like a follower of mine! Peter tried to prevent the crucifixion by force, by cutting off the ear of the high priest’s servant. Peter denied Christ three times on the eve of his passion. Even after the resurrection, Peter made mistakes, there is an incident recounted in one of Paul's letters, where Peter got it so wrong, that Paul confronted him to his face, and called him a hypocrite in front of the entire community at Antioch. Why choose this man? Why not John, the innocent one who remained faithful even to the foot of the Cross? Why not another? Surely someone else could have done better?
We have to understand, the power of binding and loosing entrusted to Peter is immense. He has been given the authority to forgive sins or to declare them unforgiven. He has been given the responsibility for defending the deposit of faith, for declaring something is to be true and others to be heresy. He has the power to elevate Saints to the altars, or to excommunicate and condemn. Perhaps this explains why Jesus entrusted the keys to a man as weak and as fallible as Peter. St Optatus, a fourth Century African Bishop and Church Father, certainly read it this way, giving us one of the most powerful lines in all the writings of the Church Fathers;
‘So many innocent ones stood by and the sinner received the keys, so that a practice of unity might be established. It was provided that the sinner should open to the innocent so that the innocent would not turn the keys against the Sinner.’
St Optatus, Second book against the Donatists
Jesus wanted the Church to be governed by men of mercy, and so he chose the sinner Peter, a man who himself needed mercy.
Peter is fragile, and a sinner, just like you or I. He was chosen because in his fragility he would remember to be merciful. Today’s Gospel is a reminder to us that, in spite of the immense power of his office (when he makes solemn declarations on matters of faith or morals) the Pope remains a fallible man, capable of mistakes, capable of saying the wrong thing and doing the wrong thing. Capable even of leading people astray. 265 men have held the keys since Peter, among them have been saints and scoundrels, great pillars of the faith like Peter and grave scandalisers whose names have become synonyms for corruption and abuse.
Jesus has not left us as orphans, he has given us the rock of Peter as a place to find our unity, and he has given us a Father to govern and guide us. But by choosing Peter he reminds us that our earthly father is fragile, and as prone to sin as any of us.
We should each one of us pray for the Holy Father, Pope Francis, the 266th man to hold the Keys to the Kingdom, that he will govern wisely and well, and hold fast to the truth of Peter’s Confession of Faith. Today, if you do nothing else, pray for the Holy Father. He is the 266th fallible man to hold the Keys to the Kingdom on Christ’s behalf, and is in more need of our prayers than any other.
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