Tiberius, 18th February 2023 – Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter No 37:21-28; Ps 22; 1 Pt 5:1-4; MT 16:13-19   1. Dear Brothers and Sisters.   May the Lord give you peace!   When Jesus teaches solemnly, the gospels present Him to us seated. So, we see Him sitting on Peter’s boat preaching to the people who have gathered on the shore of the lake-the Sea of Galilee in Capernaum. Sometimes we may imagine Him sitting on a rock while speaking to the crowds gathered around Him, not far from here, on the Mount of the Beatitudes. The word “cathedra” is a Greek word that indicates a particularly solemn chair, on which a master sits to teach the disciples around him. Jesus Himself will speak of the chair of Moses on which the scribes and Pharisees sat (Mt 23:2). To speak of a chair therefore means to speak of an authoritative, important teaching that has to do with a special wisdom that comes from God and that serves to guide our lives. To-day we celebrate the Chair of St Peter and therefore we must ask ourselves two questions: what is the important teaching that the Apostle Peter transmits to us? How does that teaching reach us to-day?   2. The important teaching that the Apostle Peter transmits to us concerns Jesus. In the Gospel passage we have heard, Peter is the apostle who in the name of all recognizes and proclaims that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God”. Peter does not succeed in grasping this truth with his human intelligence, but because the Father has revealed it to him. Recognizing that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God is a special grace that God gives to Peter. Even after Pentecost Peter will be the first to speak, to proclaim the mystery of Easter, that is, that Jesus died and rose again for us, a mystery that we are called to welcome through baptism and through the gift of the Spirit to obtain forgiveness of sins and the grace to become children of God.   3. Peter’s teaching will serve to confirm his brothers and sisters in the faith (Lk 22:32), to nourish and guide them by shepherding God’s flock, caring for them with love, and becoming models of the flock (cf. 1 Pet 5:2-3) to the point of giving their own lives, like Jesus. This is what we heard in the second reading and what Jesus will say to Peter not far from here, at Tabgha, at the end of the Gospel according to John. On a personal and community view point and level, that is to say, an ecclesial level, Peter helps us to build our Christian life solidly on the relationship of love and discipleship with Jesus. It is with his teaching and service that Peter opens to us the doors of our relationship with Jesus, which is the only relationship to bring into our lives God’s forgiveness and mercy and the gift of His own Spirit who makes us God’s children. In a word, the relationship with Jesus is the only one to bring us salvation. For it is the service of the Apostle Peter, which is the service of the Church, that is meant to open us to this one necessary relationship, our relationship with Jesus.   4. If Peter’s teaching and ministry had been only for the first generation of Christians, only for the early Church, it would not have made sense to talk about it so much, and Jesus would not have put so much emphasis on the person of Peter and his service. Now we know that from the beginning Peter’s ministry, his service to the Church, like that of the other Apostles, did not remain linked only to his person but found a continuation in the Church in those who succeeded Peter and the other Apostles.  To-day, in the person of the Pope, it is still Peter who teaches, who indicates the relationship with Jesus Christ as the only one who saves. It is also Peter who guides Christ’s flock on the journey of history and nourishes it with the word of the Gospel actualized.   It is again Peter who binds and dissolves every time the Pope makes binding decisions for our journey as Church and individual believers. Moreover, we know that we need this guidance and this teaching, to be able to cross the desert of doubt and the sea of despair, not to be sucked into the mentality of the world that not only no longer knows how to distinguish between good and evil and between truth and falsehood and in fact, no longer even wants to distinguish between them, as if good and evil, true and false no longer existed.  It does not matter if the Pope’s name is Francis, or Benedict, or John Paul. It does not even matter if he is simple, shy or charismatic. It does not matter if we like him or not. It matters that he is the successor of Peter! with all that goes with it.    5. As Pope Francis reminded us in his homily on the occasion of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul on the 29th June, 2013, his first homily as Roman Pontiff, Peter’s task is to confirm the brothers and sisters in the faith, to confirm them in charity and confirm them in unity. In the Pope’s own words, the service of Peter and the Apostles consists in “confessing the Lord by letting oneself is instructed by God; to be consumed for the love of Christ and His Gospel; to be servants of unity”. We thank the Lord because he did not limit Himself to calling Peter but wanted his service to the Church to continue through the centuries and millennia through the ministry of the successor of Peter, the Pope, who is a concrete person, just as Peter was 2000 years ago, and to-day is called Francis.  On this occasion, let us make our own the special prayer for the Pope that the solemn liturgy of Good Friday puts on the lips of the whole Church: “O Almighty and eternal God, wisdom that governs the universe, listen to Your family in prayer, and guard with Your goodness the Pope whom You have chosen for us as Christian people. May You entrust to his pastoral guidance so that we might always progress in faith. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.”  Read More