Today in the life of the Church we celebrate a very important feast, the Feast of the Chair
of St. Peter. In order to understand its importance, it is good to understand the person of St.
Peter, for there is perhaps, after our Lord and our Lady, more known about St. Peter than
any other member or saint in the Church. And this is fitting because he would be given
that great prerogative to become the Vicar of Christ. And so the Scripture tells us that
St. Peter was certainly an impetuous man, and so we can assume very readily that he
was an impetuous child indeed. In our day and age, he probably would have been a candidate
to become a Ritalin child.
Often we see that medication prescribed, not so much because the child needs it, but
because the child truly needs parenting. And so St. Peter would need a great deal of parenting,
and he would receive that from the hands of our Lord and from the hands of our Blessed
Mother, and he would become the great Apostle, the great Vicar of Christ.
And so we learn in his impetuosity the weakness of St. Peter, that he shows himself in Scripture
to be truly a son of Adam, affected by original sins.
And we would come to know
that on the night of our Lord's Passion, he would be even affected by the gravest of
all sins, for he would deny the Master not once, not twice, but three times. And so he
would commit that greatest of all sins. But St. Peter was truly a man of love, and so
St. Peter would repent of his sin, and he would have in his person fulfilled that promise
that our Lord gave to him.
And in today's Gospel, the very background for the promise of our Lord was done at Caesarea,
Philippi.
In the presence of both a temple built in honor of Caesar and temples in honor of the
pagan god of Pan. And so, when our Lord promises the keys, he does so in the background of
those very two institutions that St. Peter will struggle against, those very same institutions
that he will seek to overthrow, not so much in deposing the powers of this world, but
in instructing them on the truths by which they are to exercise the authority for every
leader of the world has that authority over his nation because God has given it to him.
And so St. Peter would become the great instructor of the nations. He would go from Jerusalem
to first set up his sea in Antioch and then after traveling to Jerusalem in which he was
imprisoned and knowing his life to be imperiled and after fulfilling his duties in Antioch,
that is, using the times in which he set up his chair at Antioch to instruct many of the
nations.
was a prime place to instruct both the Latin-speaking, the Greek-speaking, and the Hebrew-speaking peoples.
And so St. Peter would then flee under the inspiration of divine providence
in order to establish his seat until the end of time in the very seat of the pagan world,
in the very seat of hedonim, that is, Rome.
And he would eventually, through his teachings, Rome would come to know and love and serve the Lord,
and it would be converted to that faith that Christ came to establish in all the hearts.
And what was the basis of St. Peter's now profession of faith?
Why is it that this weak man, who on the night of our Lord's passions would go so far as to deny him three times,
why is it that this man, who was constantly exercising a lack of humility when our Lord said he was going to go to Jerusalem,
Peter would boast, I'm going too.
When our Lord said there he would be scourged, Peter boasted,
I will too.
When our Lord said I will be crucified, Peter boasted, I will too.
And we know very well the results.
What is it that caused Peter to finally submit in humility to the formation of Christ and become that vicar of Christ?
It is because St. Peter finally came to know and believe and truly believe in the depths of his heart
that first article of the creed that he will hand on to all generations,
I believe in God, the Father, the Almighty.
He no longer trusted in his own strength.
He no longer trusted in his own strength, in his own powers,
for he knew he could do nothing except through the grace of Almighty God.
And so it was when St. Peter finally accepted this,
he came to be the great teacher of the Apostles' Creed.
Many, as it were, wonder what is the origin of the Apostles' Creed.
Many have speculated, and indeed there may be very truth to the rumor,
that each apostle was asked to contribute to the construction of the Apostles' Creed.
But even if this were the case,
this is not where St. Peter learned the Apostles' Creed.
This is not where the apostles learned the Apostles' Creed.
Only a superficial reading of the New Testament would come to that conclusion.
It is very clear from the New Testament that they learned the creed from our Lord Himself.
And so, learning the creed from the Lord Himself,
and truly finally believing in that first article that God is all-powerful
and he can do with weak men what is impossible for them by nature,
they truly became the teachers of the world.
of the Creed to all nations and so they will teach that same Creed until the end
of time and it is the very basis of our unity what is the basis of the unity of
all Christians it is in obedience to the vicar of Christ and so the heretic
offends by denying faith the schismatic offends by charity particularly charity
against the vicar of Christ and the pagan refuses to be formed by the one
whom Christ has established to form all nations at all times and ultimately our
faith will be determined on whether we to make an act of faith in the vicar of
Christ we must believe as Saint Peter came to believe that I believe in God
the Father the Almighty that despite he may call weak individuals to the
sea do we believe that the authority of God stands behind each and every
legitimate successor to Saint Peter if we do then we truly come to be
leaders of the world.
as Saint Peter believed and we will join him with all the blessings all the
blessings in eternity praising our good God together for all eternity
you