Feast of the Chair of Peter Read more
Feast of the Chair of Peter
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If we die with him, we shall live with him,
if with him we endure, with him we shall reign.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Matthew 16, 13-19
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of man is?'
And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.'
'But you,' he said, 'who do you say I am?'
Then Simon Peter spoke up and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'
Jesus replied, 'Simon son of Jonah, you are a blessed man! Because it was no human agency that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven.
So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my community. And the gates of the underworld can never overpower it.
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If we die with him, we shall live with him,
if with him we endure, with him we shall reign.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Today’s celebration of the Chair of Peter remembers an ancient tradition according to which Peter’s episcopacy in Rome started exactly on February 22. The liturgy of the Church invites us to commemorate and celebrate "Peter’s ministry." Two aspects are underlined: on one hand the apostolic foundation of the Church of Rome and on the other the service of presiding in charity, that is a unique charisma that lives in Peter’s successors. The Gospel we heard, with its three symbols, the rock, the keys and the act of binding and loosening, shows that Peter is called to a ministry for the entire building of God’s elected ones. We are well aware of how vital this ministry of the unity of the bishop of Rome is for the Church. Today it looks even more urgent and precious. In a globalised world, with very strong self-centredness and fragmentation, the pope represents a unique treasure to be kept, protected and shown, not in the powerful ways of this world, but as a service of love for all especially for the weak. The primacy in fact is not born from "flesh" or "blood." It is not a question of personal and human qualities. It is a gift of god’s Spirit to his Church as it is clear in the Gospel passage. Jesus gathers his disciples in a secluded place and there he starts speaking with them. He wants to know what people think of him; it is not just out of curiosity - even a legitimate one. Jesus knew that people were awaiting the Messiah, though he was intended as a military and politically strong man. People knew that he would come to free the people of Israel from the slavery of the Romans. And yet this expectation was foreign to his mission that wanted to free people radically from the slavery of sin and evil. After the first answers, Jesus goes straight to the disciples’ heart: "But who do you say that I am?" He needs his disciples to be united with him, that they have a common feeling. Peter takes the word and, answering on behalf of all Peter, confesses his faith and receives immediately his blessing. Peter, and with him the modest group of disciples, is part of those "infants" to whom the Father reveals the things hidden since the foundation of the world. And Simon, a man like all others, made of "flesh" and "blood," receives a new vocation, a new task and commitment in the encounter with Jesus; he will be rock, that is support, for many others and will have the power to bind new friendships and loosen many bonds of slavery.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
