St. Peter & St. Paul       Gospel: Matthew 16:13-19        Burning Question

At certain stages in life we can lose our way.  A business person who starts out with a great idea can become focused only on profit and lose sight of their passion.  A politician who was once idealistic becomes disillusioned.  A teacher, under pressure to deliver results, loses enthusiasm for the subject.  We all have times when we get jaded, or bogged down with trivial concerns, and we forget why we do what we do.  Our Christian community, too, can lose its way.  The Church has not always lived up to its momentous responsibility to communicate God’s love to the world.

Today’s gospel encourages us to reflect on our Church and its mission.  Jesus’ reference to the ‘keys of the kingdom of heaven’ is often interpreted, in Catholic circles at least, as a reference to the origins of the Church (and the papacy).  But notice what Jesus asks Peter before he hands over the metaphorical keys: ‘But who do you say that I am?’  This burning question gets to the heart of the Gospel.  The word ‘but’ is crucial: Jesus is not asking the disciples what they have heard about him from others or what they understand intellectually from their time with him.  He is asking them: do you really know me?

Simon Peter immediately and confidently answers, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’  Jesus responds with affirmation and renames him Peter, a play on the Greek word ‘petra’, meaning rock.  This brings to mind the earlier parable about those who build their houses on rock (Mt 7:24-27) representing those who not only hear Jesus’ words but act on them.  A thread tunning through Matthew’s Gospel is that knowing and believing is not enough.  Good intentions are not enough.  Everything we do, both as individuals disciples but in particular as Church, should stem from the burning question of today’s gospel: ‘But who do you say that I am?’

© Triona Doherty & Jane Mellet, 2021.  The Deep End: A Journey with the Sunday Gospels in the Year of Luke.  (Dublin: Messenger Publications 2021.

“Christ asks for a home in your soul, where he can be at rest with you, where he can talk easily to you, where you and he, along together, can laugh and be silent and be delighted with one another.                         – Caryll Houselander