Here is a joke that the choir members can perhaps appreciate:
Saint Peter is checking ID’s at the Pearly Gates, and first comes a Texan. “Tell me, what have you done in life?” says St. Peter.
The Texan says, “Well, I struck oil, so I became rich, but I didn’t sit on my laurels-I divided all my money among my entire family in my will, so our descendants are all set for about three generations.” …
St. Peter says, “That’s quite something. Come on in. Next!” …
The second guy in line has been listening, so he says, “I struck it big in the stock market, but I didn’t selfishly just provide for my own like that Texan guy. I donated five million to Save the Children.” …
“Wonderful!” says Saint Peter. “Come in. Who’s next?” …
The third guy has been listening, and says timidly with a downcast look, “Well, I only made five thousand dollars in my entire lifetime.” …
“Heavens!” says St. Peter. “What instrument did you play?”
A guy ends up at the pearly gates and St. Peter welcomes him by congratulating him for being the first man to live to 350 years of age. The guy is confused, “I think you have got the wrong guy, I never lived that long.” St. Peter replies, “Yeah it's you, we worked it out from your IT contracting time sheets.”
We hear in our Gospel today Matthew 16:18, “I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.”
Do you know other language, like Spanish or French? Then you might appreciate that, in Greek, rock is feminine, Petra, but since Peter is a man, the masculine version of rock has to be used, which is Petros. Petra and Petra both mean the same sized rock. So, Peter is not a piece of the rock. Peter is the same-sized rock as Petra.
Translated in modern English, the verse would read, “You, Rocky are the rock upon which I will build my Church.”
Others read it as, "As truly as you are called Peter, on this rock of your profession of your faith, I shall build my church."
Please note, though, there is no mention of Peter’s faith in this verse. We all know that 1 Corinthians 3:11 says that Christ is the only foundation.
It’s another thing all together though to say that Peter is a little stone “Petros,” and Jesus is the big, massive stone, “Petra.” This is because Petros and Petra both mean the same sized rock. If Jesus wanted to use the word “small rock” for Peter, he would have used “psephos” which is mentioned twice elsewhere in the New Testament in Revelation 2:17.
Consider too that Jesus’ pronouncement is directed to Peter himself and that “Peter” is the nearest antecedent of "this rock” the grammar and logic demand that the identification of "this rock” is no one or nothing else but Peter himself.
Peter said in the Spirit, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Judaism was not expecting the Messiah to be divine.
Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. Son of Jonah means son of John, or Johnson. Rocky Johnson would be how you would find Peter’s name in the phone book today.
Nevertheless, Frederick Buechner is right: “A rock isn’t the prettiest thing in creation or the fanciest or the smartest, and if it gets rolling in the wrong direction, watch out…1 So, Peter does not have to impeccable, and he sure wasn’t! The phrase “binding and loosing” reflects the rabbinic, technical use referring to the pronouncements of Rabbis on what is permitted and what is not permitted.
This is a good time to believe what many Christians believe to the true doctrine in terms of faith and morals:
The first category are divinely revealed truths by God’s self-revelation that must be believed “credendum.” Divine means responding to God’s self-revelation, Not believing or distorting these teachings or doctrines entails heresy.
They include the Nicene creed; Christological dogmas, like the Resurrection; the doctrine on grace; the doctrine on the existence of original sin; the doctrine of the immortality of the spiritual soul and on the immediate recompense after death; the absence of error in the inspired sacred texts of Scripture; the grave immortality of direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human life, etc. This is a partial listing of infallible truths. You can think of many others, like existence of heaven and hell, angels and demons, etc.
There are also truths that are necessarily connected with revealed truths (the Latin word is “Tenendum,” to have and to hold. Believing in these is necessary to remain in communion with the Christian faith, like the illicitness of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and artificial birth control like the pill and other means (see Genesis 38); the illicitness of prostitution; the illicitness of pornography; the illicitness of fornication, etc.
When Jesus promises that the gates of the netherworld or the gates of hell shall not prevail against Peter and his Church means that death and hell will not win, and the Christian Church will actually grow. Be faithful to Christian doctrine and the Christian moral life and preach it in the Spirit and your church will grow.
That is why the church survived the persecution in Rome until Christianity was legalized by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the edict of Milan in 313 AD which allowed for toleration of Christians to practice their religion and ordered that the Christians’ confiscated property be returned to them. But, Christianity was not made the state religion, it was founded by Jesus Christ. Constantine just legalized Christianity by the government.
There was a man who was given the nickname, "Honest John." It embarrassed him and he protested that he didn't deserve it. "Couldn't you call me, `Fairly Honest John?'" he asked.
That sounds like a lot of us, doesn't it? A lot of us just want to be `fairly committed' in our service to Christ, `fairly committed' to our Catholic faith and worship, `fairly committed' to making our church what God has called it to be, `fairly committed' to evangelism and making disciples.2
The entire people of God share in the prophetic role of Christ; hence all participate in the ministry of proclaiming God’s holy word. This includes, not only the written words of the Old and New Testaments, but also all the Christian doctrines pertaining to faith and morals which you just heard a partial listing of. Christ and his Church relies heavily on you to transmit the teachings of the Christian faith and your reward will be great in heaven for faithfully doing so.
Amen.
1. Frederick Buechner, Peculiar Treasures, New York, Harper and Row, Publishers, 1979, p. 134.
2. Billy D. Strayhorn, The Thing With Two Heads, Sermons.com
