The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary, today the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, call us to reflect on the way we attend to the people of the Church who are attempting to fulfill the mission of Jesus to Peter and the apostles as shepherds caring for His flock.
St Peter and still water
The reading from the First Letter of Peter offers advice to presbyters who are tending the Flock of God.
* [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. * [5:1] Presbyters: the officially appointed leaders and teachers of the Christian community (cf. 1 Tm 5:17–18; Ti 1:5–8; Jas 5:14).1
Psalm 23 celebrates the Divine Shepherd.
* [Psalm 23] God’s loving care for the psalmist is portrayed under the figures of a shepherd for the flock (Ps 23:1–4) and a host’s generosity toward a guest (Ps 23:5–6). The imagery of both sections is drawn from traditions of the exodus (Is 40:11; 49:10; Jer 31:10).2
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus responds to Peter’s Declaration about Jesus.
* [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).3
Edward Morse comments that the Lord knew full well about the fellows he was building with. Like the rest of us, they were flawed and weak, with only a spark of faith that needed tending. But he was still willing to build with them, tending that spark and keeping it burning through the ages.
It is hard to live in these times, but I doubt that they are unique in requiring the members of the Body of Christ to bear up under challenges. Let us resemble the best of our predecessors in clinging to our Shepherd and listening to the shepherds tending our flock. Let us also support and pray for our shepherds as best we can, as we also pray for one another. After all, we also have our own little flocks to tend, and leading by example is not so easy. Thanks be to God.4
Don Schwager quotes Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD), an early church father who comments on Peter's profession of faith in Jesus.
Peter did not say "you are a Christ" or "a son of God" but "the Christ, the Son of God." For there are many christs [meaning anointed ones] by grace, who have attained the rank of adoption [as sons], but [there is] only one who is by nature the Son of God. Thus, using the definite article, he said, the Christ, the Son of God. And in calling him Son of the living God, Peter indicates that Christ himself is life and that death has no authority over him. And even if the flesh, for a short while, was weak and died, nevertheless it rose again, since the Word, who indwelled it, could not be held under the bonds of death. (FRAGMENT 190)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 16:13-19 comments that “chair” also means an office of the Church. The feast of the Chair of Peter is a celebration of Peter’s special role in teaching and leading the Church. It’s also a celebration of the role that his successor, the pope, plays in every generation. The feast highlights the fact that the gospel message proclaimed by the pope can be traced all the way back to St. Peter and the twelve apostles.
There’s an implicit message in Bernini’s sculpture ( St. Peter's Baldachin). He fashioned a “throne” for Peter’s chair with the statues of four Doctors of the Church—Sts. Augustine, Ambrose, John Chrysostom, and Athanasius—holding it up. By creating these statues, Bernini was telling us that Jesus didn’t just put Peter “in charge”; he gave each of us a charge as well: to hold up, or take an active part, in his Church. Notice that those saints aren’t exalting Peter the man. They’re supporting his teachings, which come directly from Jesus. In other words, Peter does not rule alone. He is supported and upheld by everyone who follows the teachings and the commands that Jesus gave to his apostles.6
Friar Jude Winkler discusses the elevated Christology in 1 Peter that suggests an author other than Peter. Jesus' action at Caesarea Philippi is connected with texts in Daniel 7 and the Songs of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah. Friar Jude reminds us that the authority of the Pope connected to the Gospel today was also attributing to Peter the rabbinical authority over observance of the Law.
Gregory DiPippo writes for the new Liturgical Movement, which works to call to life the real heritage of the Second Vatican Council. In 1997, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) published a volume under the title Milestones: Memoirs 1927 - 1977. In it he wrote about the importance of liturgy in bringing together a Church tearing herself apart. DiPippo traces the history of the two feasts of St. Peter’s chair. ( A former pastor, Fr. Charles Burke, shared the observation that the worst winter weather comes “between the chairs”).
In 1558, Pope Paul IV, (pictured right) a strong promoter of the Counter-Reformation, added a second feast of St Peter’s Chair to the calendar, on January 18; a response, of course, to the early Protestant Reformers’ rejection of the governing authority of the see of Peter and the bishop of Rome. The newly restored feast was assigned to the day given in the ancient manuscripts, particularly the Martyrology “of St. Jerome,” which the scholars of the era regarded as an especially important witness to the traditions of the Roman Church, where Jerome had once lived and served as secretary to the Pope.7
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that although we cannot be a part of Jesus’ original “seminary of life” as the disciples were, contemplative theologian Beatrice Bruteau (1930‒2014) proposes that we can learn the wisdom of Jesus by drawing closer to him, eventually coming to live out of the same consciousness he shared with God.
Jesus, as disciple-maker, calls himself the Way, hodos, a road [John 14:6]. The road is something you can walk on; it gets you from here to there. Jesus is such a path. The passing from depth to depth on the way into his heart corresponds to a passing from depth to depth in our own heart, where “heart” means the core of our existence, not just the seat of the affections. We can walk on this road which is Jesus first by petitioning him, then by studying him, later by imitating him, and by dialoguing with him. But after we have practiced these disciplines for some time, if we are to enter his heart, we must get into his own consciousness.8
The role of presbyters and Church leaders to attend to the Spirit of God following the Good Shepherd is also the Way to care for our responsibility to the domestic church of our family.
References
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