Ordinary and yet Extraordinary

Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out
and to cure every disease and every illness.
The names of the Twelve Apostles are these:
first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew;
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
Philip and Bartholomew,
Thomas and Matthew the tax collector;
James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus;
Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot
who betrayed Jesus.

They were ordinary men. You could say that in a way that they were just like you and me.  Arising each morning, each of them began their day full of hope and they dressed, ate a bit of breakfast and went to work. They put in a full day, went home, rested, went to sleep and the next day they did it all over again.  Yes, you could say that they are just like you and me.  One day, one glorious day, everything changed.  They were called by this man that they had heard about called Jesus. He was known to be a great teacher, afraid of neither Pharisee, Sadducee, or the Pagan Romans.  They left everything behind and they began to follow Him.  They saw many wonders and speculated between themselves who this Jesus was.  It was Peter, the first one called to be a fisher of men that first acknowledged Jesus as the Son of God.  It was Peter on whom Jesus placed the mantle of leadership, and it was Peter who when given the chance saved himself and denied his Lord, but later repented and was received back by Jesus.  Yes, these men are a microcosm of all of the eventual followers of the Lord because He chose not the strong and the wise, he chose the incredibly average.  He also included among that number one that in the end betrayed Him to the authorities, making it possible for them to rather quietly dispose of an inconvenient messiah. 

Remember this fellow Catholics, from the Pope on down, we are ordinary people, all members of the Church that Christ built on the Rock of Peter. This Church is built with Christ as the cornerstone. The founder and His teachings hold the whole thing together as we await the moment of His return to claim His bride again. Our Church was not the invention of a mere man but rather it was the will of the Father, the work of the Son, and the constant protection of the Holy Spirit that gave her birth, sustained her through good and bad and that will keep her safe until the wonderful day when Jesus returns.

It is not through any action on our part that the Church is holy.  It is because of who the founder is, Jesus, and who sustains His Church in error free teaching, the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God the Father.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow! 

Rocking Around The Clock

He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
Simon Peter said in reply,
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. 
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.  I send my prayerful congratulations out to both of these important men and I know that Paul won't mind if I concentrate on Peter today.

You have to hand it to Jesus, He hired quite a crew when He chose those who would carry on for Him once His mission was completed and He returned to the Father.  What people, particularly Protestants seem to forget is that Jesus did not proclaim a democracy, He proclaimed a Kingdom.  A kingdom, of course, is ruled over by the king.  The king decides policy and he appoints ministers to enforce the policies that he makes up.  The king cannot be everywhere at once so he normally has a chief or prime minister to handle things for him.  This minister is given authority far above the other run of the mill ministers that help run the kingdom.  As a matter of fact, all other ministers report to the prime minister.  An ordinary minister has the power of his office.  For example, he can collect taxes.  But this ordinary minister does not decide how much and from whom the taxes will be collected.  This is done through the king and through his proxy, the prime minister. The prime minister, on the other hand, can make decisions that affect the other ministers the king has placed under him.  The prime minister has been given the keys to the kingdom.  Doors that he opens, others do not have the authority to close and ones that he closes, no other may open.  The prime minister's decisions have the effect of law.

In today's reading, we see that Peter has been appointed as the rock upon which Jesus will build His Church.  Notice that the Church is not Peter's church, it is the Church of Jesus.  Jesus is the King and Peter has been appointed as his prime minister being given the keys to the kingdom.  More than that, Jesus declares that the gates of the netherworld will not prevail against His Church and decisions made by Peter on earth will be honored in heaven.  Peter is given the authority of the prime minister, he can bind and loose. 

Peter is arguably a curious choice for this post of being the first in a long unbroken line of popes.  Yes, I know Jesus did not say the word "pope."  The word simply means father or better yet, papa. As we follow the story, not too far down the line Peter fails the first time and Jesus tells him, "Get thee behind me Satan."  Later on, Peter, the prime minister bravely denies his master while warming himself at the fire in the courtyard of the high priest.  But in the early Church, controversies came up and were discussed at length.  But when Peter spoke, the discussion ended and the matter was settled. 

So we salute Peter, the first Pope and see in him a human being who went back to fishing until  Jesus called him back. We see a man who made decisions that helped the young Church grow.  And he was a man that proved his love of Jesus in the end because he requested to be crucified upside down when the time for his martyrdom came because he felt unworthy to die as his Master did.  So, thank you Peter, the first Pope, the first servant of the servants of God.