Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle
Lately I’ve been thinking about how astonishing it is that two thousand years after Jesus lived on earth Christians can still think of ourselves as his followers. We don’t serve God in the abstract; instead we serve God as revealed to us by Jesus. There were many teachers in ancient times who had disciples then, yet very few if any can be said to still have disciples now. So it is even more remarkable that we can be counted among Jesus’ disciples. As I reflect on the readings for today I’m reminded of the ways that our ability to live as disciples of Jesus is a result of God’s providence and grace through the church.
The Catholic Church teaches that we are connected to Jesus not just in the mass and personal and corporate prayer but that the succession of ordained church leaders—specifically priests and bishops—can be traced back through the laying on of hands to Jesus’ original commission of the Apostles to go out into the world and spread the gospel. Today’s feast of the chair of St. Peter reminds us of this connection to Christ through the apostolic succession of church leaders and calls attention to the specific role of church leaders in teaching and encouraging those they are put in charge of.
In the first reading, from 1 Peter, the word ‘presbyters’ refers to “the officially appointed leaders and teachers in the Christian community” (New American Bible, p. 1260). The theme here is that Christian leaders must be selfless and devoted to those they are put in charge of leading and teaching. They are called on to serve eagerly and not out of a sense that they have to. And in tending their flocks they will be like Jesus who is the ultimate Good Shepherd. Presbyters are commanded to feed God’s people by serving them and teaching them by example what it means to be friends of Jesus. There is a message for lay people here as well. We are expected to allow ourselves to be ministered to, taught by, and perhaps even corrected by our leaders, and in general to accept the grace of God as mediated to us in part by them.
How to interpret Jesus’ words to Peter in the gospel reading is often very controversial, particularly because it has been taking historically to concern the role and mission of the papacy. Some who read this passage take Jesus’ reference to the ‘rock’ to be saying that the Church is built on Peter and by extension on the office of the papacy in a personal way. Others take ‘rock’ to signify the office of bishop, or to the Apostles in general. Still others take it to signify Peter’s confession that Jesus is Lord: the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Christian’s confession of Jesus’ Lordship over our lives.
Some or all of these interpretations may have truth in it. However, I do not find myself able to resolve the question of how to interpret Jesus’ words in the passage. What I do find in reading it again is that Jesus is reminding Peter that his confession of Jesus is a gift from God. Furthermore, the ability to see Jesus for who he really is is a grace given to Peter that he did not come up with on his own. God revealed this truth to Peter. It is through God’s grace that the Church continues to train up disciples and that these disciples are given the ability to prevail against the power of sin and death. What a great comfort that is.
-Joel Schickel