Homily

The Gospel passage we have heard is known as "the text regarding the primacy of Peter." To hear it here, in the church of Rome, of which Peter is the pillar and foundation, as is Paul, is more than an occasion of fine remembrance of the apostle and his legacy. It is a Gospel passage that goes well beyond the theological debates of Peter’s primacy and questions the faith of each one of us. The very Fathers of the Church, who were not preoccupied with the primacy of Peter, have given these Gospel words a more spiritual interpretation, one more bound up with ordinary Christian life.
In order to understand this episode correctly, it is first necessary to place it in the new situation in which Jesus has come to find himself (for this the parallel passage Mark 8:27-30 will be of help to us). After his preaching in Galilee, he finds himself again practically alone. He had tried to make the crowds who followed him the "new people" of God, but he has experienced a first defeat: all have abandoned him. He finds himself alone again, with that little group of disciples. They seem faithful, it’s true; but will they remain until the end? Will they accept a crucified messiah? These and other questions stirred Jesus’ mind. He therefore gathers that small group in an out of the way place, in the region of Caesarea Philippi, and asks them what people think of him. There was, in fact, a great expectation among the people in regards to the coming of the Messiah, but just as great was the uncertainty regarding his form and task. Nevertheless, there was generally agreement in maintaining that the Messiah would be a man of strength, politically and militarily. In any case, the common people’s spirit was overheated with respect to this topic, so that one can speak of a sort of "messianic fever" among the people. There had already been someone who had presented himself as a Messiah and had stirred up armed groups, who had been quickly repressed by the Roman authorities.
The disciples’ response to Jesus’ question reflect the widespread uncertainty: there were those who saw in him the Baptist come back to life, those who thought he was Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. All, in any case, regarded him as a great prophet, but not the one in whom God himself speaks and acts. Nevertheless, Jesus’ true intention was to know what they, the disciples, thought about him: "But you who do you say that I am?" Speaking for all of them (the Eastern Church calls him the coryphaeus, the leader of the chorus), Peter responds with a profession of faith, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answers him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven." Peter has received this revelation from God; he is of one the "little ones" to whom the mystery hidden from the foundation of the world is revealed (Mt 11:25-26). He, as Paul writes, has been able to taste "the depth of the richness, the wisdom and the knowledge of God."
Jesus then gives him a new name, "Simon, you are Kefa (Petros in Greek, Peter in English)." Receiving a new name means receiving a new vocation, beginning a new story. The new name that Jesus gives to Simon calls to mind the idea of building. It is true that Jesus alone is the "rock" the house is built on him, the "corner stone." But Peter becomes the prototype of the disciple, an example for believers in every place and every time. We all have to join him in his faith. Peter himself suggests this when he writes: "Come to him, a living stone...and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house" (1 Pet 2:4-5). Every believer needs to participate in the name, the story, and the vocation of Peter and to work to build the spiritual house.
In working on this building, we all receive the "power of the keys," and in a certain sense, the power to "loose" and to "bind." As the prophet Isaiah also writes regarding God’s chosen one, Eliakim: "I will place on his shoulders the key to the house of David; if he opens, no one can shut; if he closes, no one can open." It is a real power. But what does loosing and binding mean? To "loosen" means loosening the bonds that hold us tight to our selfishness, tie us to the shore of our love for ourselves, and force us almost inevitably to be subjected to personal selfishness and the selfishness of the group, clan, ethnicity, and nation. There are bonds that make one violent and like a slave. We need to loosen them urgently and bind ourselves to the wider horizon of the Kingdom of God, where friendship, solidarity, and mutual service are the new law. These are the "ties" we should put into effect. Jesus says that these new "bonds" that are created on earth are confirmed in heaven. They will not be damaged and will remain strong, even after death. It is truly a great consolation to know that everything that we bind on earth will be bound forever. It is as if to say that what counts in life is love and what remains is friendship among us and with all. And it is on "this rock," on rocks of this quality, that Jesus builds his Church and the new world.