Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

Benedict XVI’s Wednesday audience catecheses on the Church continues with three lessons on St. Peter (May 17, May 24, and June 7). B16 has been devoting some time to the nature of the Church, especially her hierarchical structure, by discussing its foundation on the Apostles and what is meant by Apostolic succession. With the May 17th audience, he now is looking at the Apostles individually. And so appropriately, he begins with a look at St. Peter.

In the first catechesis, Benedict reminds us that he is talking about the Church in terms of a family, and now he looks at Peter’s place in it. He shows Peter as the leading figure among the Apostles. Unlike the homilies one often hears these days which like to belittle Peter and his lack of faith, B16 is much more fair to him by recognizing his strengths (trust, sincerity, and generosity) as well as his weaknesses (impetuosity and strong will). Peter is the leader and so he also receives the most correction from Jesus (e.g. “get behind me Satan” Mk 8:33). Benedict shows from Peter’s experience, that the journey of faith is an up and down adventure; it is not a one time statement. If it is that way for a man who has enough faith to walk on water and still run away then we ought not be too comfortable in our illusions of self-sufficiency. It also ought not scandalize us too much when we see bishops or even the Pope fail.

The second catechesis focuses on Peter’s strength and his openness to the Holy Spirit (e.g. his response to Jesus’ “who do you say I am” in Mark 8 and his response to Jesus’ “will you also leave me” in John 6) which are followed by Peter’s weakness in denying the condemned Jesus. Benedict points out in John’s Gospel, how Peter is called to confront his weaknesses when Jesus asks Peter by the Sea of Galilee if he loves Him. The term John uses to describe Jesus’ question about Peter’s love is agape. Agape is the strongest, selfless and unconditional love. Peter responds and uses a term for love that show he now recognizes his weakness of faith. He tells Jesus that He already knows that Peter’s love is still only one of filias. As with Peter’s triple denial on Good Friday evening, Peter is called to thrice admit His total insufficiency without God’s grace. Peter is cut to the quick but he now knows what it means to be a leader in Christ’s Church. Peter responds three times about his yet insufficient love. In response, each time Jesus tells Peter to guard and tend His family, His flock. Benedict suggests that through this exchange, we can see that when we put our trust in the Church and the successor to St. Peter, we realize that from the beginning that this trust is not ultimately in a human institution or a human person, and not in our own faith. Rather we recognize that as with Peter, even when we have leaders with the right heart and earnest will, they will sometimes fail. Rather, our trust is in the divine institution, the Church, because She is guaranteed by its Head.

The final session on St. Peter looks at the significance of a name change in biblical times. Jesus changes Simon’s name (wavering) to Peter (rock). This name change reflects almost an ontological change in the person. The change also reflects a new mission; Peter is no longer a fisherman in his father’s employ but a fisherman in the employ of Christ. In the audience, B16 shows that Scripture consistently shows that Peter has primacy from the start (the only exception is Acts 15) and that both he and the other disciples recognize this (e.g. Peter is always first of the three who accompany Jesus in most significant events such as the Transfiguration, Jesus prays only that Peter’s faith will be saved in order to strengthen the brethren [Luke 22:30-31], the tax collectors in the Temple go up to Peter to ask about the Temple tax and Jesus has Peter pay it only for Himself and Peter, etc.). This primacy has a significant connotation when we recognize Jesus as the Son of God, a term which refers to the king in the line of David and this Davidic King is the promised Anointed One. Peter is the King’s prime-minister.

B16 treats the triple metaphors in Matthew 16: the Rock, the keys, and the authority to bind and loose. He shows the manner in which Christianity has always understood them. In other words, this three metaphors establish St. Peter with the primacy of authority over the Church. B16 goes on to point out that giving Peter the mission of strengthening the brethren in the context of the Last Supper reveals the ultimate meaning of his primacy: “Peter must be the custodian of the communion with Christ; he must guide in the communion with Christ so that the net will not tear but sustain the great universal communion.”

Peter is the sign and instrument of Church communion/unity with her Head, Christ. As St. Ambrose of Milan wrote in the fifth century, Ubi Petrus, ibi Ecclesia (where is Peter, there is the Church).