Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was concerned that his apostles should know who he really
was. He examined them on the point at Caesarea Philippi. He wanted to know more than just what
the crowds thought. He wanted to know if his apostles believed the same things that the crowds
did, and of course the crowds were wrong.
The apostles weren't sure how to answer our Lord's question except for Peter. Peter knew
that our Lord was more than a prophet. He knew that he was the Christ, the Son of the
living God, and our Lord knew that Peter had this knowledge not from man. He didn't judge
the way the people of the world judge things. He judged things by God's standard because
God had revealed this to Peter. And it was for this reason that our Lord entrusted to
Peter the keys. Our Lord's Heavenly Father had put a mark on Peter, had pointed Peter
out by this knowledge, and our Lord chose him to be his visible head of the church on
earth, to be his vicar.
In order for the apostles to serve our Lord in that capacity, Peter especially, but of
course every priest is in a sense a vicar of Christ. He acts in the person of Christ
in the holy sacrifice of the Mass, and as a helper of the bishops, all the bishops under
the Pope.
Every priest is meant to act in the church's name, to preach, to teach, and to administer
the sacraments. In order to do that, the priest, the bishop, the Pope has to know who Christ
is, has to be able to identify him, and act in his name.
And that's why
we have to
just moments later when St. Peter was confronted with the mystery of the cross as our Lord
told his apostles that he was on his way to Jerusalem to suffer and to die. And then Peter
rejected that mystery. Our Lord completely reversed, you might say at least momentarily,
his opinion. He didn't take away from him the keys, but he did say exactly the opposite
of what he had just said moments before.
When he gave him the keys, he said, you are not judging as man judges, but as God judges.
My heavenly Father has revealed this to you. And when St. Peter rejected the cross, our
Lord said to Peter, you are not judging as God judges, but as man does. And he called
him Satan, told him to get lost. Because Peter's job and the job of every bishop and every priest
was not simply to exercise authority or to teach, but it was to, again, to be in Christ
and to act in his name. And our Lord, before anything else, is our Savior. He is a victim
for our sins, who suffers and dies on the cross and redeems us.
So our Lord drew a line in the sand with the mystery of the cross, and even told the first
pope, who had just made pope, to get lost if you're not willing to accept this mystery.
Especially you who are a priest, you who are the first head of the church. This is a mystery
that you are going to have to live.
Today we celebrate the Feast of St. John Vianney, who not too long ago was made not only the
patron of parish priests, but now patron of all priests by Pope Benedict. He made him
that on, I believe, the Feast of the Sacred Heart a couple of years ago. And St. John
was a priest, a shepherd after the heart of Christ, precisely for this reason, because
he understood that the deeper mystery of the sacred priesthood was the fact that he was
a pastor.
So he made him a priest.
The Feast of St. John Vianney is the mystery of the cross. What the priest celebrates at
the altar he is supposed to live, he's told this, at ordination. And it is most of what
the priest does, more than preaching, more than even administering the other sacraments.
The priest does all those things and is necessary for all those things. But before anything
else he is meant to live the mystery of the cross and to offer the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ.
and as a vicar of christ you know a visible image of christ on the earth he reminds every
single catholic that this is where the rubber hits the road this is where the faith thrives or fails
right now in the church today in the middle of in the midst of crisis and persecution and all the
rest it is whether or not we are going to live the mystery of the cross lift up our hearts to
god in the holy sacrifice of the mass and join in jesus christ and his most holy mother
a sacrifice that is pleasing to our heavenly father
we need to fight the good fight and stand up for what is true good
good
good
and beautiful in the face of the opposition of the world but more than that far more than that
you might say infinitely more than that is the importance of our of our carrying our cross
and so as difficult sometimes as living in the church is today we should stop complaining and
and do what we can to offer a sacrifice that is pleasing to the lord this is
precisely what saint john vianney did he suffered for the people of ours who you might say didn't
deserve it they didn't deserve saint john vianney it was a corrupt town and he walked into that town
and was ridiculed and rejected
but at the end the people of ours we couldn't bear the idea that he would leave them
because he persevered and he persevered and he persevered and he persevered and he persevered
in their midst as a shepherd after the heart of christ and brought that whole town to conversion
more than anything else because of his penance because of his willingness to sit
hour after hour after hour in the confession and then at night to be beaten and tortured by the
demon who was angry with him because he was bringing souls to christ he carried all these
crosses on behalf of the sheep and he brought them to the lord
may saint john vianney teach us all and especially priests what it means to be
a follower of jesus christ and to live in the light and of his cross the light of his cross
and resurrection may his cross and resurrection be our hope and our strength in these times of trial
i
is
you