Questions, Answers, Rocks and Keys

The Gospel for this past Sunday (24 August 2008; 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A: Mt 16: 13-20), is a great example of how a familiar passage can take on fresh meaning in our lives. To start with, why does Jesus ask two questions instead of just one? Why does he ask who the people say He is instead of just cutting to the chase and asking the apostles what they think? It seems that he wants them to think about what’s distinct in the way that they look at Him from run of the mill public opinion by contrasting the difference. What is it that makes Him so unique, singular, exceptional for them? And while Peter gives the definitive answer as to Jesus identity, it doesn’t let the others off the hook from answering it themselves. But it’s an answer that has to be given with more than just words. Jesus’ question can only really be answered by our lives, by the way we live. Every authentically lived Christian vocation answers the question “Who do you say that I am?” by shouting “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” in the language of flesh and blood. What we translate as “Christ” is Greek for the Hebrew word for “Messiah,” which literally means “the Anointed One.” But it also conveys the sense of “the Awaited One,” “He who is to come,” the Promised One. The promise certainly refers to the prophecies of the Old Testament which foretold Jesus’ coming. But it also refers to the promise found in every human heart, the promise that is every human heart and life, for that which will fulfill its deepest longing. When we respond with our lives to the Person of Jesus, we say with the voice of our very existence: “It’s You! – You’re the One!” It is this shared promise that constitutes our communion in the Church, as the Opening Prayer for last Sunday’s Mass expresses so beautifully.

The deeper that conviction becomes in our lives, the more fully we express it by the way we live and the choices we make, the more firm our faith becomes and the more solid and substantial we become as persons and Christians. While Peter is the Rock in a very special way, and he and the other apostles form the foundation of the Church (cf. Eph 2:20; Rev 21:14), it is St. Peter himself in his first letter who calls us “living stones” (1Pt 2:4) who are being built into a spiritual house. The more solid we are, the better building blocks we can be, and the more we can give strength to those around us.

Similarly, while it is Peter and his successors who are given “the keys to the kingdom of heaven” in a very particular way, in order to be able to bind and loose on earth and in heaven, each of us has also been our own set of keys to the kingdom, by which we ourselves can enter. These “keys” are faith, prayer, humility and repentance. They are the keys that open the heart of Christ and enable us to enter into an intimate friendship with him.