A Cycle – 21^st Sunday in Ordinary Time 26

W] Mt. 16:13-20

The Vatican two documents exhort us to “hunger for the scriptures as much as we hunger for the eucharist.”  Why would that be one of the items included in the reforms of the church. Reforms recommended to allow a fresh influx of the wind of the Holy Spirit to create a desire within us for the more God has always desired to lavish upon us.  Perhaps it is as simple as St. Jerome stated when he said, “ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ.”  Yet we Catholics remain the one Christian denomination with the least knowledge of scripture.   Because we do not read the scriptures the passages we hear during the liturgy of the Word become extremely familiar. 

So familiar, we are like children who hear a fairy tale and can recite it long before they can read.  So familiar we listen to them as stories. We never listen to them as God speaking to our hearts and challenging us to examine ourselves.  Today’s gospel is one of those well known stories and it is easy to wonder how we would answer the question “who is Jesus to us.”  The Old Testament passage from the prophet Isiah chapter twenty two verses nineteen through twenty three never registers.  Yes, stories but God is teaching something about Himself and how we should be responding to what we hear.  If your only exposure to the scriptures is what is being read during mass, you will hear less then five percent of what God is revealing to us in the scriptures.  Yet it seems we are content with our lack of interest in the scriptures because we have the Eucharist. 

We ignore salvation history and its importance in our church today.  Before Abraham, before Moses God’s desire for us remained constant in His desire for us.  He desired us to respond to His love for us and His constant care for us.  God made a covenant with Abrahan to make us a holy people who would acknowledge Him.  We forget that there was no law, no church and only an oral tradition retelling their history with God.  It was Moses who was given the law, and it was Moses who judged the disputes between people. It was Moses whom God told to set aside the Levites to offer sacrifices on behalf of the people.   Following Moses were men filled with the spirit to judge disputes between people.  It was at this time in salvation history the people demanded a king to be like all the other nations.  Hence the prophecy of Isaiah gives us a glimpse of what indicates a fulfillment of that prophecy would be hundreds of years later.  That is why we need to realize the scriptures are more than stories to be heard and quickly forgotten.   

Isaiah’s prophecy was directed at Shemba, the master of the palace who had failed to exercise his duty as the manager of the kingdom.  While the king ruled supreme, the “Master of the Palac” was like a Prime Minister who attended to the affairs of the palace and its relations with their neighbors.  Issaiah shows us the critical nature of the master of the palace and his need to always act on carrying out the will of the king and not his own. That means he must know God’s plan and how to carry out that plan.  In another way it is a prophesy about Peter who would receive the external symbol of him being the rock on which God would build his church.  The key which opens and closes everything in the kingdom

It is not the first time we have seen a key or a symbol of authority given to someone who was considered unworthy.  The prodigal son got his father’s ring, which was used to seal documents. When Jesus tells Peter he has been given the keys, there was no kingdom except to one Jesus came to establish. There was no building, yet Jesus tells Peter he would be the foundation just as Jesus was the cornerstone.  Yes, Isiah was pointing to this moment which we Catholics know is directed at the first Pope.    But since we have two thousand years of history I would rather point to those who have been called to rule over a part of the kingdom of God and that is each of us.  

Our kingdoms are much smaller, but it is critical is for us to understand each of us is responsible for expanding the kingdom of God. It is important for us to be effective disciples expanding the kingdom of God.  We cannot do that if our only knowledge of Christ is an intellectual knowledge.  We will never know Christ intimately until we emotionally begin to encounter Christ in the scriptures.  Not the stories of Christ’s interactions within the scriptures.  We will never build a relationship with Jesus without the Holy Spiri revealing a message we need to hear as we read the Word of God.

Everything I said about how the words of Isiah provide us with the origins of what we call the Papacy is useless information.  It is useless information because it does not help us grow closer to Christ.  It fills our head with useless information that has only one purpose which Paul points out is scriptures I useful to refute and teach.  But if our teaching and correction do not lead to a conversion of heart it is useless.  This is more than a story about Peter the Rock. It is a challenge to us by Jesus to examine ourselves and become aware of how each of us are masters of our palace.  We need to be faithful in that area before we seek to be involved in greater things. Keep on mind the first kingdom we are responsible for is our homes.