Word to the Wise
Thursday, August 4, 2011 - Thursday in the 18th Week in Ordinary Time
[Num 20:1-13 and Matt 16:13-23,1034]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."
These words of Jesus to Simon Peter are of great importance to the Catholic church! They seem on the surface to be clear! But their interpretation has been a point of tension almost from the very beginning of the Christian community! What kind of authority is meant here? History gives us such a variety of expression that one could argue almost any point of view! The monarchical style of papacy that so many of us Latin Rite Catholics know is a product of historical development. But Jesus' words go beyond the pomp and pageantry and St. Peter's Basilica, none of which existed at the time he spoke to Simon Peter! Pope John Paul II made a point in his document Ut Unum Sint [That they all may be one] that there may be other ways to express the "Petrine ministry" than the one that currently exists. What is not disputable to us Catholics, however, is that there IS a Petrine ministry! Furthermore, and perhaps very scary, is that this ministry is not based on an institutional expression but on a HUMAN PERSON, the "successor of Peter." Later on in this same Gospel of Matthew, Jesus gives similar powers to the whole community [Matt. 18:18].
Unity and continuity in faith seem to me to be the most important features of the Petrine ministry. Unity does not mean uniformity. There is a vast variety of expression in the church. Continuity does not mean we try to be anachronistic by attempting to re-create the conditions and expressions of the first century of Christian faith! We are creatures of time and space. The Petrine ministry extends first and foremost to people of faith, especially those who accept that ministry as a defining reality. It does not depend on this or that pope but on Jesus' own declaration. We can only pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to inspire the Successor of Peter and those who elect him (an historical development in itself) with wisdom to achieve that unity and continuity which make our Church possible. AMEN