Shepherds and Chairs

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter offer contemplation of authority in the Church.

Leading the commmunity

In the first letter of Peter advice is given to the leaders of the community to be shepherds.

 * [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.1

Psalm 23 is an image of the Good Shepherd.

In the Gospel from Matthew Peter’s Confession About Jesus leads to his role as one with rabbinic authority.

 * [16:13–20] The Marcan confession of Jesus as Messiah, made by Peter as spokesman for the other disciples (Mk 8:27–29; cf. also Lk 9:18–20), is modified significantly here. The confession is of Jesus both as Messiah and as Son of the living God (Mt 16:16). Jesus’ response, drawn principally from material peculiar to Matthew, attributes the confession to a divine revelation granted to Peter alone (Mt 16:17) and makes him the rock on which Jesus will build his church (Mt 16:18) and the disciple whose authority in the church on earth will be confirmed in heaven, i.e., by God (Mt 16:19).2

Eileen Burke-Sullivan reflects on the time “between the chairs” (The Chair of Peter (2/22) and the Church of St. John Lateran (11/9), the Bishop of Rome’s Cathedral.) The Chair or cathedra is celebrated in February and the site of the Chair or Cathedral in November. What do these bookended feasts tell us about God’s Reign and the role of the Ecclesia (the Church) – the people set apart (1 Peter 2.9) – to accomplish God’s will “on earth as it is in heaven.”?

It is God’s desire, revealed in Jesus, that we work together as one community of faith – not uniform, but united amid the very diversity of cultures, nations and peoples.  But that unity is about understanding and helping one another reject the common forms, and even the structures, of enslavement that lure us away from God’s Reign; the self-destructive and other-destructive behavior that too easily riddles the lives of the members and leaders of the Church – even the Pope, as Francis continually reminds us, and even as St. Peter himself knew first hand.3 

Don Schwager quotes Epiphanius, a 6th century Scripture scholar who also translated many early church commentaries from Greek into Latin, explains the significance of Jesus handing down the "keys of the kingdom":

For Christ is a rock which is never disturbed or worn away. Therefore Peter gladly received his name from Christ to signify the established and unshaken faith of the church.… The devil is the gateway of death who always hastens to stir up against the holy church calamities and temptations and persecutions. But the faith of the apostle, which was founded upon the rock of Christ, abides always unconquered and unshaken. And the very keys of the kingdom of the heavens have been handed down so that one whom he has bound on earth has been bound in heaven, and one whom he has set free on earth he has also set free in heaven. (INTERPRETATION OF THE GOSPELS 28)4 

The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 16:13-19 notes that on this feast day, when we celebrate Peter’s role as leader of the Church, we remember that Peter was able to take on this role because Jesus had helped him grow into the person he became. Remember this, and believe that he can do the same for us.

Friar Jude Winkler suggests that Peter used his secretary in the exhortation to presbyters to express the ideas in good Greek. In all the Gospels Peter receives authority. (In Luke at the Last Supper and in John 21). The chief shepherd of the flock refers to the function as Gospel are written after the death of Peter. Friar Jude connects the authority of Peter to the rabbinic authority to bind and loose.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, explains what he is calling an incarnational worldview is the profound recognition of the presence of the divine in literally “every thing” and “every one.” It is the key to mental and spiritual health, as well as to a kind of basic contentment and happiness.

Ilia Delio, an expert on geologist and Jesuit priest Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955), writes:
Building on the idea that love is self-communicative, Teilhard indicated that in the [first] incarnation, the “self” of God is in the “self-emptying” of God. God is that which is constantly becoming “element,” drawing all things through love into fullness of being. God incarnate invests Godself organically with all of creation, immersing [Godself] in things, in the heart of matter and thus unifying the world. This investment of divinity in materiality is the Christ. The universe is physically impregnated to the very core of its matter by the influence of this divine nature. Everything is physically “christified,” gathered up by the incarnate Word as nourishment that assimilates, transforms, and divinizes. The world is like a crystal lamp illuminated from within by the light of Christ. For those who can see, Christ shines in this diaphanous universe, through the cosmos and in matter. [1]5 

The role of authority in the Church is rooted in Scripture and Tradition and is authentic in the extent that the Spirit is visible in the action.

References

1	(n.d.). 1 Peter chapter 5 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Retrieved February 22, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/1Peter/5:1
2	(n.d.). Matthew, chapter 16 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved February 22, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/matthew/16:13
3	(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved February 22, 2019, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html l
4	(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved February 22, 2019, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
5	(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archives — Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved February 22, 2019, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/2019/02/