Monthly Spiritual Message, February 2006
By Fr Carl Schafer OFM
The Chair of St Peter – February 22
Jesus, like the Rabbis, spoke most authoritatively when he “sat down to teach” (cf. Matt 5:2). Hence, the seat or chair is the symbol of authority, teaching and leadership. On the feast of St Peter’s Chair, we celebrate Peter’s leadership.
In the gospel (Matt 16:13-19), Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Peter takes the lead and answers, “You are the one chosen by God to lead and save his people.” Jesus replies, “You are the Rock, and I will build my chosen people on you.” He appoints Peter as leader.
The Letter to the Hebrews (2:10) says of Jesus, “It was appropriate that God … should make perfect through suffering the leader who would take them to their salvation.” Jesus said the same about Peter (Jn 21:18), “When you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and somebody else will put a belt round you and take you where you would rather not go.” So it was when Peter, out on the old Via Appia, turned back and faced his death in Nero’s Circus.
It is clear from Peter’s first letter (5:1-4), that he had learnt the true meaning of leadership, when he advises, “Be examples to the flock, not lording it over those assigned to you.” We are celebrating the leadership he gave by his example as well as by his teaching.
Not only our appointed Superiors are called to exercise leadership. All our brothers and sisters in the faith, and indeed all others as well, have been entrusted to each one of us. We are all called to be leaders.
We are leaders when our way of life sets the proper standard for others, not as perfect creatures but as penitents. We are then a credible sign that God is calling, reconciling and saving his people. As Christians, we show the spirit of Jesus the servant to all, especially to those who are trying to live their Christian vocation. As religious, we try to embody the ideal and the practice of a consecrated follower of Jesus Christ. As Franciscans, we live prayerfully in minority as integral members of our local Fraternity and of the Franciscan Family, while always tending towards conversion.
Peter learnt his best lesson in leadership after he had denied even knowing Jesus. According to Luke (22:61-62), “At that instant, the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter … And he went outside and wept bitterly.”
St Francis exercised genuine leadership and bequeathed it to his Franciscan family. He wrote to a provincial Minister, “There should be no member of the fraternity who has fallen into sin, no matter how far he has fallen, who will ever fail to find your forgiveness for the asking, if he will only look into your eyes.”
The gospel (Mt 16:13-19) comprises two parts: first, the profession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah, made by Peter, as spokesman for the Twelve, (Mt 16:13-16.20), and second, the promise of pre-eminence that Jesus makes to Peter (Mt 16:17-19).
In Matthew, Peter’s profession of faith goes further than acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah. Peter calls Jesus also “the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16). Matthew is strong on the “Son of God” title (cf. Mt 4:3, 14:33). This title is not found in the parallel passages in Mark and Luke.
The second event may not have followed the first at the time. But there was an important reason why Matthew joined the two events in his gospel.
By the time of his writing, the Christian community had definitely broken with Israel. But that situation raises a problem. A Messiah without a people to save is unthinkable. Matthew immediately introduces the new people of God to fill the vacuum left by the Messiah’s rejection of Israel. Jesus announces the church, that is, the assembly of his people that he calls together. He founds this people on himself and on his Twelve Apostles. After his departure, the foundation will be pre-eminently the Rock, Peter.
Jesus gives to Peter the keys of entry into the assembly of his people and, through his church, into the kingdom of God. Jesus clearly intends to provide for his church so that it does not collapse after Peter’s death. “The gates of the underworld can never hold out against it” (Mt 16:18). So the promise of Jesus must hold good not only for Peter but also for his successors.
Jesus addresses his questions to everyone: in general, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” (Mt 16:13); then in particular, “But you, who do you say I am?” (Mt 16:16). Jesus poses a “vote of confidence”.
Peter, on behalf of the others, makes a positive profession of faith: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. In fact, says Jesus, it is the Father who has revealed it to Peter. For that reason, Christ will build his Church on Peter.
But Jesus must be accepted as the “suffering Servant and Saviour”. Here Peter raises opposition on the strength of a purely human thought, and becomes “a stumbling block”. For this, Jesus will pray for his “conversion”, so that he can strengthen his brothers (Lk 22:31).
All of this holds good for us. We openly declare ourselves for Christ the crucified and risen Saviour. We belong to Christ in his Church built on the rock. Let us allow ourselves to weep with Peter over our past unfaithfulness and be confirmed in the faith by the same Peter who has the power and the mission for it from Christ.
While we celebrate the Eucharist, we recognize in Jesus Christ him whom the world awaited as the Messiah, liberator and saviour. More than that, we acclaim him as the Son of God. We welcome him as the living bread come down from heaven to satisfy everyone’s hunger. In the Eucharist, we place him at the centre of our hopes, for ourselves personally and for the Church that he has assembled, and for the world at large. Let us pray, hoping in our Saviour and our God to provide for the pressing needs of the Church and the world.
Carl Schafer OFM
National Assistant SFO-Oceania
