Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle

Lectionary: 535

You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church;

the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.

I know of only two relics in our Catholic tradition that merit feast days, the Chair of Peter and the True Cross. So far as I know, no other relic merits even a memorial day. Despite some claims, the Church insists there are no relics of the Blessed Mother; and the only reliable relic of Jesus is the Blessed Sacrament. (But you might count the Veil of Veronica and the Shroud of Turin.)

Here in Louisville, a shrine contains the relics of Saints Magnus and Bonosa in the Basilica of Saint Martin of Tours. I don't know if they have earned even a local memorial Mass.

But, despite the American palette which generally disdains Christian relics, there is something fascinating about encountering the actual item which may have been the saint, or possessed by the saint, or touched by a relic of the saint.

While Americans looks askance at such holy objects, they cannot be unfamiliar with the rags Elvis Presley distributed to his fans, Michael Jordan's single white glove, or Dorothy's Ruby Slippers. Not to mention innumerable home run baseballs swatted by our immortal Boys of Summer. And let us not forget the fetish over Einstein's brain! If these things carry a certain eclat, our secular neighbors can hardly deny our pleasure in the relics of saints.

Relics, like the holy sites in Jerusalem and Israel, carry the memory of God's visit to our mundane world. They don't come to us from Once Upon A Time, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, or a Galaxy Far, Far Away.

God has stooped down from heaven to save his beloved people. Whether your spirituality delights in the ALL POWERFUL, SOVEREIGN GOD who deigns to save his wretched  people, or the kenotic Lord who humbly assumes the last and least place among us, the relic demonstrates his Real Presence in our world.

We have to be impressed by that.

The Chair of Saint Peter is, like most relics, disputed. Tests of the wood show it came from a tree grown in the sixth century A.D. Well, never mind.

The point is Saint Peter lived in Rome and presided over the nascent church in the catacombs, where superstitious Roman soldiers dared not enter. There is no doubt  of that history and you can still visit those ancient passageways.

Our faith is not a fantasy, our gospels are not fiction, our Blessed Sacrament is more than a symbol.

God still visits his people.