Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
(A-cycle) August 24, 2008
Imagine this evaluation by an executive search organization: The person in question’s previous occupation was “fisherman”, although he seems to catch fish only through divine intervention. He often speaks without thinking and acts just as impulsively. In moments of crisis, he has been known to cave in, resorting to flight and denial.
Would you hire this man? It appears that Jesus did---and for the biggest job imaginable, leader of the community assembled in His name after His ascension into heaven. Jesus had said, “A foolish man builds his house on sand.” Our Lord seems to be playing the fool by picking Simon who gives sand a bad name. But he does. He changes Simon’s name to Peter-Rock and says “upon this rock I will build my church.”
When he took over the job, Peter had two things in his favor, I think. His faith and his humility. He knew how un-rock-like he had been in deserting and denying Christ. One of the most popular images in early Christianity, found in churches and catacombs was Peter-the Penitent or Weeping Peter. I think in exercising his authority, he had to be so conscious of his human weakness that he would be the last to, in the words of Christ, “lord it over others as the pagans do”. He would have looked upon his responsibility as service not power. He would have prayed for guidance from the Spirit. He would have realized keenly that he was a poor stand-in for the church’s ultimate rock foundation, which is Jesus Christ Himself.
In 1995, Pope John Paul II, who we believe was a successor of St. Peter, exhibited some of that same humility in his encyclical “That All May Be One”. In a breathtaking passage, he apologized to the other
I think some clues can be found in Chapter 15 of the Acts of the Apostles about a crucial meeting of the early church, sometimes called the Council of Jerusalem. You may recall that Paul and his missionary colleagues had been having great success in converting gentiles, transforming a previously all Jewish church. The question was: Should gentile converts be required to observe the Jewish law, including circumcision and kosher diet? Paul said no; other church leaders said yes. The book of Acts tells us “after much debate had taken place, Peter got up to speak”. Only after much debate, did he make his decision. He didn’t cut off debate; he encouraged it. He may have been the last word, but he was also the first listener. Any pope, any church leader must be a learner as well as a teacher, listening to his flock, laity as well as clergy, women as well as men, learning about their joys and sorrows, their lived experience. Good leaders listen to and learn from other churches, other faiths, too. A second clue: Christ gave Peter, and we believe his successors, the power to bind and loose. I think it is significant that Peter’s first decision was to lift the burden of the Jewish law from his follower's yoke,” he said ”that we and our ancestors have been unable to bear”. I think a pope, like Peter, should be slow to bind and quick to loose. May our leaders and the leaders of all the churches be haunted, in the best sense, by the memory of Weeping Peter.