Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle

Lectionary: 535
 

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.
 
 
As I reflected on today’s feast I considered the three crowns the pope used to wear, signifying his duties as Bishop of Rome, Patriarch of the Western Church and Pope of the Universal Church. Then I looked up “patriarch” in the on-line Catholic Encyclopedia and decided to take another tack.
 
Historians may argue this but we seem to be living in a second “axial age.” Today’s technological, environmental, social, economic, and political changes are so overwhelming it seems the Earth is shifting on its axis. Every tradition, law and institution we have ever known must be reconfigured and reinvented or dropped into the dustbin of history.
 
But we have it on faith that the Church with its Gospel will remain until the end of time. Given that confidence, Christians are tempted to ignore the times, supposing that “We’ll get back to normal pretty soon.”
 
It’s not going to happen. Pope Saint John XXIII knew that when he called the bishops to the Second Vatican Council. That council called for every religious institution to reexamine its life and rediscover its founding spirit. Many institutions have vanished in the interim, some are struggling and a few are enjoying new vitality.
 
One of those changing institutions is the papacy. Pope Paul VI began the process of simplifying when he gave his tiara to the poor of the world. (It now resides in a reliquary in Washington DC.) He also added about 40 cardinals to the traditional number (72) and initiated a retirement age. The only duty of the College of Cardinals is to elect the pope, so that change was significant. But Pope Benedict XVI made the most important move when he voluntarily retired. Hopefully, he delivered us from the frightening specter of a disabled, demented pope who might live twenty years past his ability to guide the Church during this axial age.
 
What comes next? I certainly don’t know. (I notice that Pope Francis met with the patriarch of Russia lately, known as the Russian Pope.)
 
But I am sure we will be guided by scripture passages such as we hear on this feast:
 

• Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah: Jesus knew the church needs the guidance of one person. Leadership comes from neither a mob nor a committee. As Harry Truman said, “The buck stops here.”
• … flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father: Not everything that God says resides in the past. Often our Father directs us through the present moment with a word, an insight or an impulse. Jesus recognized his Father’s presence in the words of his impulsive disciple.
• … you are Peter. A new name is a new identity and a new relationship. This is the only disciple Jesus renamed. (Paul never discarded his Hebrew name Saul.) With his new name Peter was recognized as the spokesman for the apostles and stepped into the role of leadership after Jesus’ ascension.
• … upon this rock: We understand Jesus’ wordplay to refer to Peter’s declaration of faith, which is essentially our relationship to God and to one another.
  I cannot control God or anyone else but I can believe in others. I can act as if God will provide and that I will discover God’s providence in expected and unexpected places.
• … I will build my Church. Although the Father speaks to each of us in the solitude of our hearts, no one comes to God alone. We are bound together in a most sacred communion we call Church.
• … and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. God the Creator and Lord of History remains faithful to his church even through an axial age.
  
  It may not be easy to remain faithful to the holy way God has given us; nor is there any reason it should be; but we trust that God still guides us under the headship of Peter.