Year A: Homily for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

by Father Simon Yong, SJ

Have you heard of Crab Mentality. It means to pull people down. We don’t like people to be up there—something like misery seeks company. (You know when you’re miserable…you don’t want others to feel good). We like it when people are like us… down here. Today we should be happy because we are to meet one such person: Peter—who is weak like us. It is true that God used him and therefore can use weak individuals like us for his glory but to focus on “Peter being weak like us” is to miss an important fact today.

I want to take a closer look at Peter’s relationship to Jesus and what that means to us as Christians. In the gospel, Peter declared Jesus as Messiah. From here we think in chronological (time) sequence that Peter first declares Christ as Messiah and because Peter is so clever then Christ decides to make Peter be the rock upon which to found the Church. It’s like one after the other. The point I want to make today is that it’s not “first this” and then only “second this”. In fact, I believe that Christ always goes together with Peter. If you want, Peter represents the Church who throughout every age declares Jesus as the Christ. Therefore, one can say that in Peter we have a Petrine ministry whose function is to safeguard the proclamation that Jesus is the Christ. This is why the Pope is called the Servant of the Servants of God. Precisely, his job function is to echo Peter’s answer: You are the Christ. Only then can the office (or the job function) of the Pope make sense. Peter’s ministry and all those who succeed him in the Petrine Ministry are the guarantee of obedience to who Christ is and so to his teachings. That is why that the Church cannot simply do as she likes. If you want; Peter and the Pope are the incarnation of this “obedience”. Let me give an example. During the time of John Paul II, he was asked to change the Church’s teaching on divorce or the indissolubility of marriage. His answer was that the Pope cannot do anything he wants, but he must on the contrary continually rekindle our sense of obedience to the teachings of Christ.

This ministry of the Pope is crucial to the Church’s faithfulness and obedience.

This is where we have trouble and difficulty in believing in this Petrine Ministry because we are disturbed by weakness or perhaps better, we are fascinated by weakness. For example, have you heard of Pope Benedict IX? He was quite scandalous, apparently he became Pope at the age of 11 and not only that for he was 145th, 147th and 150th Pope. Or what about Alexander VI who has always been quoted as one of the most corrupt popes?

The fact is not so much Christ can use weak people but rather that Christ’s power can break through and will always shine through our of human weakness. The Petrine Ministry has existed for 2000 years and what Popes like Benedict IX or Alexander VI had done would have destroyed the Church but they have not. What happened was that those who exercised authority have allowed their humanity to get in the way of their responsibility. Despite that, Christ’s Church has stood. Therefore this speaks more about Christ than about our weaknesses. Therefore, our trust is in Christ’s words: the Church will be built upon Peter and that the power of the underworld can never overcome his Church.

This has implication for us and where I become personal. But it is not an attack of the personal decisions that people have taken. They might have reasons to do so. Yet, I think this where we may make a big mistake. Let me give an example: A misunderstanding with the priest or the parish office staff was very rude and then the person goes to another denomination. I think the person has failed to appreciate Jesus’ promise. I once heard that of this Catholic who proudly proclaimed that she’s now gone to Damansara Utama Methodist Church. The pastor was more happening but most of all they were more accepting. Often people leave the Catholic Church because they have disagreement with Church teachings or with their priests.

Unfortunately this betrays a lack of understanding of the promise of Christ. Put in another way, if there is supposed to be a Church, then the Church of Christ in its fullness cannot be without Peter. The promise of Christ to Peter stands forever, irrespective of whether the Pope is strong or weak. His promise doesn’t become activated when we are weak like the song that is sometime sung: ~You are my strength when I am weak~… No, even if the Pope is strong, Christ would still be his strength.

In conclusion, Christ gave his authority to Peter forever even though every now and then those who exercise this authority let their humanity get in the way of their responsibility. As someone said Christianity is not a collection of truths to be believed or of laws to be obeyed. Rather, Christianity is a person. Christianity is Christ. And therefore the Church must proclaim this person every day in season and out of season and that proclamation is tied to Peter and all his successors who must ensure that the Church does it through her teachings, her celebration and administration. We have something or someone no other religion has… not a celebration of weakness but rather the power of Christ working through human instrumentality.