21st Sunday of Ordinary Time
As a student in Rome in the early 1970s, one of our scripture lecturers told a little story. It concerned his own arrival in Rome as a student in the late 1940s, after the war. From the very first day, his sole interest was the study of scripture. He went to his superior and revealed his dreams on this score. The superior's reply reflected the time that was in it. Vatican II was still 20 years in the future. "Young man," he said, "don't worry too much about scripture. As long as you know Matthew 16:18, you will have no trouble passing exams here in Rome. Give some thought to Canon Law!"
Matthew 16:18 is of course the passage we have read in today's gospel. "You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church..." In the year 255 AD, Pope Stephen I used this text against Cyprian of Carthage to defend Roman primacy. From that day to this, Catholics began to hear something in these words which Matthew never intended. We Catholics find it as difficult to separate this verse from the modern papacy. It's far easier to separate Kerry from football. Matthew had the personal faith of Peter in mind, not the foundation of an institution.
It is obvious from today's gospel that there was no common agreement on the identity of Jesus. Scholars today will contend that the four evangelists exaggerated the size of his following. But one thing is certain from the gospels: he had a smaller following at the end of his public life than he had at the beginning. In the course of his 3 year ministry he had alienated many. People alienate us for different reasons. Some of his followers simply did not like him personally. In fact some regarded him as the devil incarnate, and told him so. When he challenged them to come clean, they simply repeated their accusation that he was casting out devils through the power of Beelzebub. He was a personal embarrassment to many members of his own family. Members of his own family though he was mad and were not shy in expressing this conviction in public.
Then of course there were those who differed with in on specific issues, on matters of tradition and policy. The most obvious groups were the Scribes and the Pharisees. They disagreed in public with Jesus, and each side knew where they stood. Strangely enough, the Scribes and the Pharisees seem to have been his most consistent companions. They are constantly at his elbow, but only for purposes of bringing him down. Time and again, the evangelists tell us, "They awaited their opportunity to entrap him". And, eventually, they would succeed, of course.
Apparently large sections of his followers were alienated on matters of doctrine, of matters of his teachings. Two central teachings of his were particularly alienating: his teachings on baptism, and his teachings on the Eucharist, the Bread of Life. For example, after the Bread of Life discourse in John's gospel, the writer makes a point of telling us, "As a result of this discussion, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him along the road." The apparent impossibility of his claim that man must be born again alienated many, many more of his followers. But all of these forms of alienation were to be expected, more or less. It was par for the course, the occupational hazards of a public preacher. But one alienation hovers over the gospels like a dark cloud: the betrayal of Judas. The betrayal came from his own household, from one of those he himself had chosen.
It is against this divisive background that today's gospel extract is set. Jesus is keenly aware of the great variety of expectations that have surrounded his public life from the beginning. He wonders where his close band stands. What are their expectations? Rumours abound abroad. To some he is Elisha, others Jeremiah, others the risen Baptist, others one of the ancient prophets risen from the dead. These are the expectations that have cluttered the minds of those who have heard of Jesus. Each group has its own expectations; if the truth were told, each individual has his or her own expectations of him today. What do we expect of Jesus in our day and in our lives?
I suppose the principal lesson of today's gospel is that we must allow Jesus question us, rather than the other way around. Who do you say the Son of Man is? We should be very reluctant to burden other people with our limited image and expectations of Christ. The sinful, fallible and denying Peter answers for the true followers: "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." But in the very next paragraph, he says to Peter, "Get behind me Satan, you are a hindrance to me." Yet, this is the rock on which the Christian community rests: not on the person of Peter, but on the confession that Jesus is the Christ of God. As Christ, his function will operate on two levels: he will be the face of God to us. He reveals God to us. That is his first function. But his second function is no less important or no less redemptive: he reveals to each one of us the fallibility and the fragility of our humanity. But he also revels to us the full possibility and the full nobility of our destiny. Through his vision, he has furnished us with no less than the key to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is truly good news, gospel.