Jesus anoints Peter as the first Pope

February 22, 2016

Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle

Saint of the Day: Blessed Isabel of France (1225-1270)

Reading 1

1 Peter 5:1-4

1Beloved: I exhort the presbyters among you, as a fellow presbyter and witness to the sufferings of Christ and one who has a share in the glory to be revealed.[1][2]

2Tend the flock of God in your midst, overseeing not by constraint but willingly,

as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly. 3Do not lord it over those assigned to you, but be examples to the flock. 4And when the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.[3]

Responsorial Psalm

Psalms 23:1-3a, 4, 5, 6 

R. (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

1The LORD is my Shepherd; I shall not want. 2In verdant pastures He gives me repose; 3aBeside restful waters He leads me; He refreshes my soul.

R. The Lord is my Shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

4Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for You are at my side

With Your rod and Your staff that give me courage.

R. The Lord is my Shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

5You spread the table before me in the sight of my foes; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

R. The Lord is my Shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

6Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life; And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for years to come.

R. The Lord is my Shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

Verse Before The Gospel Matthew 16:18

You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church; the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.

Gospel

Matthew 16:13-19

13When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi He asked His disciples,

“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”[4][5] 14They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”[6]

15He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”[7] 

17Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.[8]

18And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.[9] 19I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”[10]

---

Notes on Readings:

[1] 1 Peter 5:1-4 - In imitation of Christ, the chief shepherd, those entrusted with a pastoral office are to tend the flock by their care and example.

[2] 1 Peter 5:1 - Presbyters: the officially appointed leaders and teachers of the Christian community (compare with 1 Timothy 5:17-18); Titus 1:5-8; James 5;14). 

[3] 1 Peter 5:4 - See the note on 1 Peter 2:25.

[4] Matthew 16:13-20 - The Marcan confession of Jesus as Messiah, made by Peter as spokesman for the other disciples (Mark 8:27-29; compare also with Luke 9:18-20), is modified significantly here. The confession is of Jesus both as Messiah and as Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16). Jesus' response, drawn principally from material peculiar to Matthew, attributes the confession to a divine revelation granted to Peter alone (Matthew 16:17) and makes him the rock on which Jesus will build his church (Matthew 16:18) and the disciple whose authority in the church on earth will be confirmed in heaven, that is, by God (Matthew 16:19).

[5] Matthew 16:13 - Caesarea Philippi: situated about twenty miles north of the Sea of Galilee in the territory ruled by Philip, a son of Herod the Great, tetrarch from 4 B.C. until his death in A.D. 34 (see the note on Matthew 14:1). He rebuilt the town of Paneas, naming it Caesarea in honor of the emperor, and Philippi ("of Philip") to distinguish it from the seaport in Samaria that was also called Caesarea. Who do people say that the Son of Man is?: although the question differs from the Marcan parallel (Mark 8:27): "Who . . . that I am?"), the meaning is the same, for Jesus here refers to Himself as the Son of Man (compare with Matthew 16:15).

[6] Matthew 16:14 - John the Baptist: see Matthew 14:2. Elijah: compare with Malachi 3:23-24; Sirach 48:10 and see the note on Matthew 3:4. Jeremiah: an addition of Matthew to the Marcan source.

[7] Matthew 16:16 - The Son of the living God: see Matthew 2:15, 3:17 . The addition of this exalted title to the Marcan confession eliminates whatever ambiguity was attached to the title Messiah. This, among other things, supports the view proposed by many scholars that Matthew has here combined his source's confession with a post-resurrectional confession of faith in Jesus as Son of the living God that belonged to the appearance of the risen Jesus to Peter; compare with 1 Corinthians 15:5; Luke 24:34.

[8] Matthew 16:17 - Flesh and blood: a Semitic expression for human beings, especially in their weakness. Has not revealed this . . . but my heavenly Father: that Peter's faith is spoken of as coming not through human means but through a revelation from God is similar to Paul's description of his recognition of who Jesus was; see Galatians 1;15-16 ". . . when He [God] . . . was pleased to reveal his Son to me. . . ."

[9] Matthew 16:18 - You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church: the Aramaic word kepa - meaning rock and transliterated into Greek as Kephas is the name by which Peter is called in the Pauline letters (1 Corinthians 1:12; 3:22; 9:5; 15:4; Galtians 1:18; 2:9, 11, 14 except in Galatians 2:7-8 ("Peter") . It is translated as Petros ("Peter") in John 1:42. The presumed original Aramaic of Jesus' statement would have been, in English, "You are the Rock (Kepa) and upon this rock (kepa) I will build my church." The Greek text probably means the same, for the difference in gender between the masculine noun petros, the disciple's new name, and the feminine noun petra (rock) may be due simply to the unsuitability of using a feminine noun as the proper name of a male. Although the two words were generally used with slightly different nuances, they were also used interchangeably with the same meaning, "rock." Church: this word (Greek ekklesia) occurs in the gospels only here and in Matthew 18:17 (twice). There are several possibilities for an Aramaic original. Jesus' church means the community that He will gather and that, like a building, will have Peter as its solid foundation. That function of Peter consists in his being witness to Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God. The gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it: the netherworld (Greek Hades, the abode of the dead) is conceived of as a walled city whose gates will not close in upon the church of Jesus, that is, it will not be overcome by the power of death.

[10] Matthew 16:19 - The keys to the kingdom of heaven: the  image of the keys is probably drawn from Isaiah 22:15-25 where Eliakim, who succeeds Shebnah as master of the palace, is given "the key of the house of David," which he authoritatively "opens" and "shuts" (Isaiah 22:22). Whatever you bind . . . loosed in heaven: there are many instances in rabbinic literature of the binding-loosing imagery. Of the several meanings given there to the metaphor, two are of special importance here: the giving of authoritative teaching, and the lifting or imposing of the ban of excommunication. It is disputed whether the image of the keys and that of binding and loosing are different metaphors meaning the same thing. In any case, the promise of the keys is given to Peter alone. In Matthew 18:18, all the disciples are given the power of binding and loosing, but the context of that verse suggests that there the power of excommunication alone is intended. That the keys are those to the kingdom of heaven and that Peter's exercise of authority in the church on earth will be confirmed in heaven show an intimate connection between, but not an identification of, the church and the kingdom of heaven.