The 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 24, 2014

     Strange as it may sound, today’s readings got me thinking about our dismal, dysfunctional national political landscape. Hardly a happy or a holy thought, to be sure (!), but the readings did bring it to mind.  That’s because both Isaiah and Matthew dealt with the issue of the conferral of high office, the handing over of the power and responsibility to govern, and I found myself comparing our nation’s political and electoral processes to the rather streamlined and straightforward way in which Eliakim, the royal official, was elected to high office in the reading from Isaiah, and to the way in which Peter was chosen by Jesus in the reading from Matthew’s gospel. Both received high office, both were given the keys of power cleanly and efficiently -- no name-calling, no silly games, no petty posturing. Any way you cut it, our democratic processes are messy by comparison, aren’t they!

     But don’t worry.  I’m not going to talk politics this morning.  You deserve better! But I couldn’t resist the reference because I thought it would touch a chord and get your attention!

     What I do want is to zero in on St. Peter who enjoys a high profile in Matthew’s gospel.  In today’s passage, he gets the highest profile possible. In fact, it could be said that, in Jesus’ words, “Blessed are you, Simon, Son of Jonah,” Matthew has given us a ‘ninth Beatitude.’

     This particular passage from Matthew’s gospel is foundational for understanding the key role Peter was given among the Twelve, the pivotal role Jesus gave him for the building up of the Church. The entire passage bears exploring. It begins with Jesus putting two questions to his disciples. First, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”  That was an easy question. They told Jesus what they were hearing. Some thought that John the Baptist had come back to life; others believed that the long-awaited Elijah had returned; still others thought he was Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. But the second question was far more personal and probing: “And you,” he said, “who do you say that I am?”

     Peter, ever the extrovert and, in this case, the inspired extrovert, was the one to answer the question: “You are the Christ,” he said, “the Son of the living God!”  And for that answer, this appealing, lovable, ever-so-human fisherman-turned-follower got his name changed from Simon to Peter, or Rock.  He became the rock on which Christ would build his Church.

     But Peter wasn’t always a rock, as you well know. It’s true that at one moment Peter could soar to the heights with inspired professions of faith like the one we just heard, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God;” and the one John reports in his gospel, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life!” and the one when Jesus spoke of his coming arrest and suffering, “Even though all desert you I will never desert you!”  Peter could soar to the heights but at the next moment he could sink to the depths.  In fact, in the verses which immediately follow today’s gospel reading, Jesus calls Peter a “Satan” and a stumbling block, and tells him to get behind him, to get out of his way!

     Peter will always be the perfect embodiment of the way God uses weak, flawed humans to achieve divine purposes.  Peter is not only the rock on which the Church is built, he is the also an image of the Church in all its humanness. So much of what Peter was, the Church is. And, of course, we are the Church….

     My friends, we should find it encouraging to look at Peter and see what Jesus was able to do through him despite his flaws. Peter is a sign of hope for us all.  Like him, most of us live somewhere between absolutely affirming Jesus and deliberately denying him. Like him, too, we have to find an answer to that great question of Jesus: “And you, who do you say that I am?”  How we answer that question will make all the difference.

     There is a wonderful story about St. Peter that is more legend than gospel. It’s one of those things that should have happened if it didn’t. During the Emperor Nero’s persecution, Peter saw that he was in mortal danger and decided to get out of Rome while the getting was good.  As he fled from the city along the Appian Way he ran right into an apparition of Jesus who was headed in the opposite direction – toward Rome.  In this story, unlike today’s gospel story, it is Peter who puts a question to Jesus: “Domine, quo vadis?” (“Where are you going, Lord?”), and Jesus answers, “I am going to Rome to be crucified.”  Peter, chastened, turned on his heels and headed back to Rome.  To be crucified.

     Of course, that story exists only in legend. Peter probably never put that question to Jesus.  But today’s gospel question is anything but legend.  It is real – very real.  “You, who do you say that I am?”  It is a question we answer many times in a lifetime – in good times and bad, in sickness and in health; and it’s a question we answer every time we celebrate the Eucharist. And the answer we give is our key to the kingdom of heaven!

Father Michael G. Ryan