Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle

 Lectionary: 535

I exhort the presbyters among you, as a fellow presbyter and witness to the  sufferings of Christ and one who has a share in the glory to be revealed. Tend the flock of God in your midst, overseeing not by constraint but willingly, as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly.

As it happens, we celebrate the Papacy the day after my harangue about a parent's hesitant faith in Jesus. The unfortunate father begged Jesus to heal his son "if you can." I insisted there is no healing, forgiving, or governing from God without the authority of the Church. That authority, I should add, was given by the Lord and belongs to the entire church. Ordained leaders simply represent and administer the mysteries. It does little good for returning sinners to have their sins absolved in the confessional if the congregation still shuns them. This can happen when their sins are publicly, widely known but their reconciliation is not; or the sacred sign is not respected. An inspired Church welcomes repentant sinners back into the fold and God's mercy.

But we should further explore this mystery of the Church's authority to heal, forgive, and govern. I have personally experienced its positive and negative sides as the Catholic chaplain in a secular hospital. I visit many patients who are very happy to see a priest -- any priest --  for they have learned to trust ordained persons and to greet them as "other Christs." Often I am drawn to revisit these patients even when they suffer highly contagious Covid 19. 

But there are some patients, listed as Catholics, who do not welcome me. Rarely are they rude, but I can see their disinterest, and it's not because they are preoccupied with their illness. The sacrament of the priest means nothing to them. Perhaps it never did. It seems it never will. Some show greater interest on my second visit, and I think perhaps the spark of faith is kindling. Others show the same cool indifference. I don't return unless I have time to kill and nothing else to do. 

It might appear to some that I have pronounced a judgement of doom. Saint Augustine shocked the Church when he said, "Love God and do what you want." If I don't want to see the patient again, I hope it's the Spirit that sends me elsewhere. That is the authority of the Church. That is how we should administer the sacraments of the Gospel. 

It must be obvious that this process of discerning the will of God is seriously flawed by our human sinfulness. We've all heard thousands of stories of unkind priests and rude congregations. We often do what we think should be done -- either to please the consumer or to enforce church rules -- without really asking, "What does God want me to do in this particular moment?"  

But that is precisely the scandal of the cross, as Saint Paul described it. The Lord God of Heaven and Earth humbled himself to become a member of our human race. He was subject not only to the wise and saintly Mary and Joseph, he was also subject to Annas and Caiphas, Herod Antipas and Pontius Pilate. 

Or, to use an anathema word in the American lexicon, God works within politics, and many inspired decisions are transparently political. One fellow challenged me about Jesus's birthday. He argued that since scripture does not say when Jesus was born and the choice of December 25 suited Rome's political purposes, we should not celebrate Christmas at all. I replied that the choice was precisely right because it was political. You can no more take politics out of the Church than you can take the bones out of the human body. Anyone who supposes that our religion should have no politics has not read the Bible. 

And why is that? Because Jesus insists we must love the Lord with everything we've got: heart, soul, mind, and strength. That everything includes our relationships with all their intractable, tangled, historical complexity.  

The Chair of Peter, which is an ancient relic and almost certainly never supported the seated apostle, reminds us of the antiquity of the Church, its Code of Canon Law, its byzantine politics, and the favor God has shown it. The Spirit of Jesus gathers and keeps us in communion with the pope and with one another. Our beloved Sacraments unite us today and assure us that his final prayer -- "that all may be one" -- will someday be fulfilled.