A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. When Jesus came to the neighborhood of Caesarea, Philippi, he asked his disciples this question, who do people say that the son of man is? They replied, some say John the baptizer, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah, or maybe one of the prophets. And you, Jesus said to them, who do you say that I am? You are the Messiah, Simon Peter answered, the son of the living God.
Jesus replied, blessed are you, Simon, son of John. No mere man has revealed this to you, but my heavenly father. I, for my part, declare to you, you are rock. And on this rock, I will build my church, and the jaws of death shall not prevail against it. I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you declare bound on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then Jesus strictly ordered his disciples not to tell anybody that he was the Messiah. That's very strange. From then on, Jesus, the Messiah, started to indicate to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer greatly there at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and finally, to be put to death and raised up on the third day.
At this, Peter took Jesus aside and began to remonstrate with him. May you be spared, master. God forbid that any such thing as that ever happened to you. Jesus turned on Peter and said to him, get out of my sight, you Satan. You are trying to make me trip and fall.
You are not judging by god's standards but by man's. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. Very recently, within hours almost, I read a statement by an eminent theologian of our separated brethren who said that this text that I just read, which of course is a stumbling block to all who do not accept the pope, that this that is perfectly absurd to think that Jesus was founding his church on Peter because everybody knows that the church of Jesus Christ is founded on Jesus Christ.
Well, of course, that's a very illuminating statement that none of us ever adverted to before. In other words, this good gentleman interprets this text as if you if you interpret it according to him, meaning that the church of Christ is built upon Peter, that that removes Christ from it, and that, of course, would be absurd if you think that the church of Jesus Christ is founded upon Jesus Christ. And, of course, he's perfectly right if that be the situation. Because there is absolutely no reason for accepting the church of Jesus Christ unless it is the church of Jesus Christ, not of some human inventor or founder or genius or saint or mystic or devil. I think all of them have had their part in founding churches.
Of course, the church of Jesus Christ is founded upon Jesus Christ. Of course, the church of Jesus Christ has no other founder than Jesus Christ. Of course, we believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and that God is the head of his church. Of course, we believe all those things. Just as firmly as this very honorable and noble and sincere gentleman believes.
But having said all of that, which we all accept, of course, it's it's self evident, we come back to this text. Now even Clemens, even Clemens, when he took his wonderful trip, you know, Innocence Abroad. If you haven't read it, I recommend it to you highly. It's a description of the first tour of The Holy Land, a really organized tour. And in many instances, it's a humdinger.
I know some of you have read it. If you haven't, get a hold of it. And it's by Mark Twain, of course, Clemens. And when he he's he's very cynical at times, and who wouldn't be. Remember, he's writing right after the civil war.
But when he comes to this incident, they came into the Holy Land from the North and moved south. So if if Caesarea Philippi was one of the first places that Mark Twain or Clemens got that they that they encountered coming into the Holy Land. Now when he comes to this text and that account of his trip called innocence abroad, he is very, very serious about this. And he quotes it, and he accepts it in this I mean, not that he not that he believes in the church of Jesus Christ, but he accepts this as a statement of Christ that he was making Peter the foundation of his church in this world. To me, that's significant testimony, believe me, from Clemens when in in in view of his whole book.
Now today, strange as it may seem, within the Catholic church, I'm speaking of Thursday morning of August 1982, you have a strong division, a marked division of so called Catholics who are pro pope and so called Catholics who are anti pope. Now this is a fact. I can justify this by plenty of text. If you read the homiletic and pastoral review, you will know very well whereof I speak. And for the last two or three months, there have been letters appearing in there from priests who have been forced into retirement, who have been shipped into the boondocks, who have become forgotten men.
Why? Because they supported the holy father. Now believe that or not, but that's the state of affairs. The holy father is not the most popular person in the world today. Now if there was one issue that divided Christendom in the sixteenth century, it was this whole thing of who or what is the pope.
It's not a question of whether he's a good man or an evil man person. We had the Alexander and the Juliuses, and so what? There was also Judas among the apostles, and there was also Peter. Peter, the rock, chosen by Jesus Christ himself, given the name rock by our lord himself. And that rock denied he even knew Jesus three times.
So we're not talking about the incumbent of the office. We are talking about the office of the holy see of the pope, of the pope. And if there's one thing that came out clearly in in the sixteenth century was this, to be a Catholic meant to be a Roman Catholic, as we say. In other words, it meant to be allied with the holy see. That is for sure.
That is translucently clear. Now this text is a powerful text, and it is beyond controversy. You can't wiggle out of it as being some kind of an interpolation, or that it's not authentic, or that the Greek of it doesn't say what the English translations say, or that the Greek is ambiguous. You can't get out of it anyway like that. This text is absolutely transparently clear.
Now, of course, Christ may have been out of his mind when he said it. He may not have been God. I don't that's another question. But when we get to this text, what does it say? It says that Jesus Christ selected one man from that group of men and said, you are going to be it.
And on you, I'm going to build my ecclesia. Now let's get ecclesia simply means assembly, collectivity, community, group. And that's what Jesus Christ left us. He didn't leave us a book. He left us a community with a a man and not the strongest of men at its head or its foundation, however you wanna look at it.
And that was Simon who was called Peter the rock. It's the same thing in Greek, Patrius. And so this text is fantastically sure. The I I I I've said Christianity is it's it's complex. It's it's a religion of the day.
It's a contemporary living force. Christ said, I will be with you all days until the consummation of the world. We're not living in the Smithsonian Museum. We're not going and visiting the ruins of Greece. We're not going into Capernaum and seeing the broken arches and the heaps of stone.
The church of Jesus Christ is a living force. And if it isn't that, it's nothing and should be wiped off the face of the earth. And I'll be the first volunteer to do it, if that be so. The church of Jesus Christ, our lord said, I build upon this rock, imagine rock, and Peter was the rock. And he proved himself a rock when he decided that he couldn't go it alone and needed Jesus Christ.
See, he was alone when he denied that he knew Jesus. He was speaking up as the great, brave man when he said, Lord, I'll go any place with you. Even if it means dying for you, you can count on me. I'll be the first one in there to throw my life away with you. Who was speaking?
The man. The man. He had forgotten a little thing that without Jesus, he could do nothing. Nothing. But when this man, after his fall, after his rejection, after his denial of Jesus Christ three times under very moderate, benign conditions, When he wakes up and realizes who Jesus truly was, then he is with Jesus and becomes truly a rock.
And so this text which we read, do not read this as ancient history. This is the text on as as writings go. This is not the only reason. But as text go, as as you accept the bible as the word of god, here you have something which is beyond dispute, a authentic, integral, unambiguous statement by Jesus Christ, the son of god. And he says clearly that his establishing a community, an ecclesia, that ecclesia is going to be based upon this man called Peter, and that that man is going to have the power of binding and loosening even in heaven.
His powers transcend the world, the physical world. He is a man of both worlds. He is the man who became the foundation of the church, which claims only god as its founder and its voice. In the name of the father, and of the son, and holy spirit. Amen.