“And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church”
(Matthew 16:18)
The One who created the heavens and the earth from the chaotic sea over which He hovered (Genesis 1:1-2)
was seen by Peter walking on the sea (Matthew 14:25). The same Peter who walked on the chaotic sea with
Jesus is in today’s gospel, chosen by Jesus to share in a very special way in Jesus’ own work of saving all of
humanity and the whole cosmos.
Let us consider deeply this vocation to which Peter is called. He is chosen, not by any flesh and blood, not by
any creature, but by the Creator Triune God.
Jesus’ own Father in heaven, by the divine communication of the Holy Spirit, reveals Jesus to Peter as the
Anointed One (Christ or Messiah), the Son of the living God. Jesus Himself confirms this revelation to Peter
as His Father’s own choice of Peter for a very specific role, indeed, a very godlike role.
Peter, who is now made an active participant in God’s own saving work, is himself transformed; his identity
changes. He himself is being recreated. He who was Simon, son of Jonah, is today renamed by Jesus.
He is Peter: the rock on which the Creator builds His church: an assembly of other newly recreated human beings
that God Himself is gathering.
Today, each of us who was renamed and recreated at our baptism by the Holy Trinity is part of that church which
we acknowledge and celebrate as God’s own church with members called to actively participate in
God’s own saving works in very specific ways.
It is the will of the Creator Triune God that we follow Peter and his successors, the doorkeepers to the kingdom
who possess the keys to open and shut, to prohibit evil (bind) and permit the good (loose).
With Jesus, Peter and his successors hold the keys to the pilgrim church on earth, the suffering church in the
netherworld and the triumphant church in heaven.