My Former SPSV High School Students Who Entered Law Enforcement

Hope's First Dentist Visit (& Faith's X-Rays)

"Why is the Office of Peter (Papacy) Necessary for Salvation?" (Homily #94)

(10am Mass)

Homily #94

Why is the Office of Peter (Papa-cy) Necessary for Salvation?

[repeat title 2x; pause & speak slowly]

A few years ago, I was driving along Hwy 37 behind a big semi-truck.  All of a sudden, a small pebble from the truck’s tires hit my windshield and caused a small dent. 

At the time, I didn’t think much of the little dent it made on my car windshield.  But over the next few months, a huge crack started to grow.  My friend told me that he once neglected to replace his cracked windshield, and the whole windshield shattered while he was driving. 

The foundations of the windshield were not solid as a rock.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus builds his holy Catholic Church that He founded upon the faith of a simple fisherman named Simon.

Now imagine this:  The sun is rising.  The 12 apostles are gathered in a circle around Jesus.  Jesus asks them about what people are saying about him.  They respond by saying that Jesus is just “a great guy” or someone “with great charisma.”  Others say that he is equal to the prophets of the Old Testament.

When Jesus says “But who do you say that I am?” to the Twelve, you can almost imagine this eerie, almost-awkward silence, where no one says anything for a few seconds. (pause)

But here’s the game changer: Simon doesn’t just call Jesus a great guy or just one of the many prophets.  Rather, he professes a new title for Jesus—Simon says that Jesus is the Messiah, that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One, the long-awaited-for savior of the world.

[It’s almost like the game “Simon Says” when you were a kid.  [explain here] For example, Simon says, “Pat your head.”  Simon says, “Raise your hands.”    Stand up!  Oh!! Simon didn’t say to stand up.]  (pause)  So whatever Simon says is said with the authority of Heaven!

Just as Simon gives the name Christos to Jesus, Jesus in turn gives Simon a new name, Peter.  Simon is now called Peter which means the rock.  Simon’s name changed with his new office. 

“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah,” for flesh and blood – “human thinking” – has not revealed you calling me the Christ, but it is my Father in heaven who has revealed this to you. 

You say that I am the Christ (pause)… well, I say that you are Peter, and on this Rock, Peter, I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell will not conquer it.

To you, I give the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven.  Whatever you declare on earth, it shall be so in Heaven.” 

[if time allows, take out keys from pocket and show personal keys and explain]

Jesus the Christ gives Simon Peter his own authority.  Simon Peter becomes the head of the Twelve.  He has a fatherly primacy over the Twelve and the first Christian community.  In fact, any time Simon Peter’s name is listed with the Twelve Apostles in the New Testament, Simon Peter’s name is always listed first.

Jesus was brilliantly prophetic!  He knows that he is going away.  So he leaves a Vicar – a Vicar of Christ – someone to stand in his place until He returns at His Second Coming. 

In the First Reading, it is written in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, “Thus says the Lord…I will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim's shoulder.  When he opens, no one shall shut…. when he shuts, no one shall open.  I will fix him like a peg in a sure spot, to be a place of honor for his family."

And notice that parallel contrast.  Eliakim was called son of Hilkiah; just like Jesus called Simon, son of Jonah.  Jesus and the Twelve knew what Jesus was doing.  To use the words of the Responsorial Psalm, Jesus does not “forsake the work of his hands.”

The person with the keys is the spiritual father over the family of God.  This, by the way, is one of the reasons why we call priests “Father.”  Because, um, it’s in the Bible!  The Bible calls spiritual leaders “Father.”  In the First Reading, the Bible says, “He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem….”  Did you catch that?  Also, St. Paul calls himself “Father” when he wrote in 1 Cor. 4:15, “I became your father in Christ.”  Also, Jesus himself called Abraham father.

For us Catholics, the spiritual father of our family is the Holy Father, or in Latin/Italian, il papa, or in English, the Pope.  The office of the papa or the papa-cy or papacy guarantees that the Church that Jesus founded will never be destroyed by heresy and error or false teachings.

St. Peter was the first papa, the first Pope, the first spiritual father of the Church.  When Peter or the Successor of Peter speaks and officially exercises his office as the visible head of the Church on matters of faith or morality, the teaching is protected from error. 

[impromptu examples of when the Pope does not speaker officially]  When he speaks officially as Pope it is protected from error when it is united with 2,000 years of teaching.

Why?  Why is the authority of the keys of Peter necessary for salvation?  Because just like that little pebble that hit my windshield, if one of the Church’s teachings on faith and morality is incorrect, if there is a little crack in the windshield of the Church’s foundation, if the foundation is not solid and orthodox, then the whole structure will eventually collapse and the gates of Hell will overcome the Church. 

(The Church may be overcome in different localities or dioceses, but the Church universal is guaranteed to never collapse like a cracked windshield.)  Without the Office of Peter to officially interpret the Bible, we would be scattered like the 40,000 different Protestant denominations claiming the Bible Alone—sola scriptura – which of course as Catholics we do not believe in…. because Sola Scriptura is not in the Bible.  We have one teaching in faith and morality all united across time and space.

Finally, if there have been struggles with this teaching, this is a moment of conversion.  [plug in Cursillo retreats as an opportunity for conversion to love the Holy Father]

There have been 266 Popes in an unbroken continual line of succession from Christ to the Peter’s Successor today to protect us from error.  It is said that Peter was eventually crucified upside down on a hill called Vatican Hill. 

Peter was the 1^st Bishop of Rome.  (Archeologists in the last century found bones of a fisherman in the hill.)  Do you know who the second Pope, or the second Bishop of Rome is?  Think of the cartoon Charlie Brown’s friend: Linus.  Pope Linus was the second Pope.  Anacletus was the 3^rd Pope.  Then Pope Clement.  And so on and so forth to our day with Pope Francis.

So let us be grateful as Christians for the Office of Peter in our spiritual life.  [When I was a teenager, I have prayed the Morning Offering pretty much every day….I offer you my….for the intentions of the Pope, the Holy Father.] Let us love the Holy Father, let us pray for his protection, especially since the Islamic State, ISIS, has threatened to kill and assassinate the Pope.  Let us pray for the Pope’s consolation against the many stones being thrown at the windshield of the Church.  (The Ministry of Peter is a gift.)

We are confident in Jesus’ words to Peter and his Successors: “You are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my Church.  The gates of Hell will not prevail against it.”

Rite of Blessing of a Child in the Womb (Outside Mass)

A pregnant mom asked me to bless her unborn child in her womb.  She wanted it on the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary.

I was happy to meet her request.

MSI 8th Commencement Exercises

I Baptized Alexandra-Rose, Daughter of My Former SPSV High School Student (Homily #93)

(see story of the shoe that fell below)

Notice Alexandra-Rose's shoe in the photo above.

After her shoe came off, I explained the story of why the Child Jesus's shoe is falling off his foot in the Our Mother of Perpetual Help icon.

When she is older, we can say that this story, too, was part of her own history. 

"Alexandra-Rose, je te baptise au nom du Père, et du Fils, et du Saint-Esprit."

Homily #93 on the Occasion of Alexandra-Rose's Baptism

(photo courtesy of Carly Corsun Machanovich)