21 Sunday A Upon this rock

Upon this rock

            Jesus today in the Gospel is asking questions to his apostles: What do people say about me? There was a lot of gossip about who Jesus was. The apostles were keen to tell him all the conspiracy theories going around. Then Jesus confronted them asking a direct question: Who am I for you? They were all silent. It is a good question for all of us. Who is Jesus for me? What is the place of Jesus in my life? It is a question every human being should ask him or herself. The answer is important. It determines how we live our lives and eventually our future eternity. While the apostles ponder the question Peter answers: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The Holy Spirit answered the question through Peter for all of us: Jesus should be our priority, the centre of our lives, the apple of our eye. As Pope Benedict XVI used to say, Christianity is a not just a set of rules, but a relationship with a person who changes our lives.

            Answering the question, Peter shows his primacy and Jesus confirms it: you are the rock where I am going to build my Church. Jesus took advantage of this important question to establish his Church on solid foundations, on the rock of Peter. Without the Church, we cannot place Jesus at the centre of our lives. It is not possible to love Jesus and not to love the Church, because Jesus is her spouse. He left us his Church for us to have a beacon to follow, for us to have a straight path to heaven, a sure way not to go astray. We need to base our lives on Jesus, and he is seated on the cathedra of Saint Peter.

            Jesus changed Peter’s name from Simon to Cephas; it means stone in Aramaic. Peter comes from Petros in Greek and Petra in Latin, which means the same. The changing of the name was very important in the Old Testament: it was a way to determine the mission and role of a person. Jesus meant renaming Peter, to found his Church on solid ground: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the underworld will not prevail against it.” These words are written on a mosaic inside Saint Peter’s basilica, around the cupola, in big letters, three meters tall, for people to read them from the ground. And they have been fulfilled. After twenty centuries the Church is still alive and kicking. We constantly hear that the Church is finished, and we see how the boat of Saint Peter keeps weathering storms, while the enemies of the Church disappear.

            We call the Church One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. Saint Pius X used to add another note: Persecuted. We complain when Christians suffer persecution and we should defend them against discrimination. But it is a good sign when the media criticise us: we are on the right path. Jesus warned us that, like him, we were going to suffer trials and tribulations. But we shouldn’t worry too much about it; the Church is build on solid ground. Jesus is watching us through the office of the Pope who is the Vicar of Christ, the visible Christ on earth, or like Saint Catherine of Siena used to say, the sweet Christ on earth.

            There is an old proverb in Latin that says: Ubi Petrus, ibi Ecclesia, ibi Deus. Where there is Peter, there is the Church, there is God. We want to be with Peter, because with him is the Church, with him is God; and without him, God is not there. We can be very good, but if we separate ourselves from Peter, from the Church, we will wither away. We have the experience of history. Today we can pray for the Pope, to lead us through these unprecedented times, and to feel on our shoulders a bit the weight of Church.

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