Reflection
In our Gospel reading, Jesus asks his disciples what the people are saying about Him. They answer that the people consider Him as one of the prophets. So, then He asks them what they think. And Peter responds, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” After Jesus affirms this answer as coming from God, He says,
“And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church…I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.”
In the last few years, I have focused a bit on Jesus saying, “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.” I focus on that because the Gospels tell us that Peter had to go through a lot in order to receive the keys to the kingdom. There was a lot he didn’t understand as yet. We will see this in next Sunday’s reading.
Peter still had to experience Jesus’ death and Resurrection. He had to experience the coming of the Holy Spirit. He had to experience martyrdom for the sake of the Gospel.
Jesus’ Cross and Resurrection do not fit the conventional view of the world. In our second reading, Paul has been trying to understand the acceptance of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Israelites of the Gospel. Here, he finally accepts that it is beyond his power to comprehend it fully and surrenders to the wisdom of God:
“Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? Or who has given the Lord anything that he may be repaid?’”
Paul could just as well had been talking about Jesus’ Cross and Resurrection. It still doesn’t make sense in a worldly way, but it makes sense to those who believe, and this is what Peter needed to experience and understand.
We, too, are called to embrace the love shown to us from the Cross and the hope we are given through the Resurrection, in order to share God’s love with the world and help build up the kingdom, working for justice and making peace.
