Peter the Rock - Faithful even in failure

 21 Sunday in OT

Peter is called the rock because of his strong faith, but his story also shows that he was capable of misunderstanding Jesus and failing badly. What made Peter a foundation for others was not perfection, but his willingness to return to Christ, continue following him, and carry out the mission he had been given. Like Peter, each of us is called through baptism to use our gifts and persevere in helping to build up the Church.

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This is an important Gospel for us here at St. Peter’s Parish because our patron, St. Peter, is featured so heavily in the story. As most of you know by now, I was raised in this parish and baptized here, so St. Peter has always held a special place for me. In particular, this story, this interaction that Jesus has with Peter, has always stood out to me. At the end of the exchange, Jesus gives Peter this name: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.” The name is a play on his Aramaic name, Kephas, which means rock, but it is also clearly symbolic. Peter is being called the rock, and I would like to reflect a little on what that might mean for Peter and also for us.

First and foremost, Peter is called a rock because of his strong faith. He becomes, as it were, a source of strength and unity among the followers of Jesus. In the Gospel today, Jesus is in Caesarea Philippi, which is in the north of the Holy Land. It was an interesting city because it was largely Gentile, and it was also a famous pilgrimage site connected with the worship of the god Pan. Pan is often shown with the lower body of a goat and carrying a flute, and he was associated with the wild. So it is there, in the shadow of a place where people worshipped other gods, that Jesus asks his disciples this important question: “Who do you say that I am?” He hears different responses. Some say John the Baptist, some say one of the prophets, but Peter is the one who has the faith to declare that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Even though Jesus’ mission is still unfolding, Peter has this insight. He understands that Jesus is not simply another prophet or religious teacher, but that he is the long-awaited Messiah and the Son of God. Because of this faith, Jesus calls Peter the rock.

More than this, Jesus entrusts Peter with a particular role by giving him the keys. I remember those keys very clearly from growing up here at St. Peter’s. Back in the olden days, before the addition of the present offices, there was a grassy space out along Fourth Street. When I would altar serve, we would walk around the back of the church, and there was a large statue there of St. Peter holding the keys. You can still see that statue today, just outside our office space. So from when I was young, I always associated Peter with these keys. To understand what they mean, we need to look at the first reading. There we hear about Eliakim, who is not the king but is given a key. The key symbolizes authority that has been delegated to him by the king. He is there as a steward, someone who stands in the place of the king and exercises authority on his behalf. This helps us understand the role given to Peter. By receiving the keys, Peter is entrusted with a particular authority from Jesus. Jesus, of course, remains the true foundation of the Church, but he gives different gifts and different missions to his followers, and Peter is given this particular mission of serving the unity and stability of the Church. As Catholics, we believe that this ministry continues in the successors of Peter, the popes. This is why we speak of the pope as the Vicar of Christ. He does not replace Jesus, but he is entrusted with a particular responsibility to represent Christ and to serve the Church.

So Peter is a rock because of his strong faith, but there is another side to Peter’s personality, and another way we could perhaps call him a rock. I want to be polite here, of course, since we are in church, but sometimes Peter can also be a bit of a rock because he is a little dense, a little slow to understand. We see this immediately after the Gospel passage we have just heard. If you were to open your Bible and read only a few verses further, Jesus begins to explain what being the Messiah will actually mean. He says that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and rise again. Peter, who has just been called the rock and given the keys, takes Jesus aside and basically says, “No, no, Jesus. There must be some misunderstanding. This cannot happen to you.” Peter understands that Jesus is the Messiah, but he does not yet understand what kind of Messiah he is. He cannot yet accept that Jesus will be a suffering Messiah. Jesus responds very strongly and says, “Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me.” So within only a few verses, Peter goes from being the rock on which Jesus will build his Church to being called a stumbling block.

We see this pattern throughout Peter’s life, and as the years advance in my own life, this is actually a part of Peter that I have come to appreciate more and more. Peter makes mistakes time and time again, but he keeps following Jesus. He misunderstands what Jesus is saying. He says the wrong thing. Later, during the Passion, he will deny three times that he even knows Jesus. Jesus had warned him that before the rooster crowed, Peter would deny him three times. This moment became so closely associated with Peter that, especially in parts of Europe, you can still see roosters on top of church towers and weather vanes. The rooster can have several meanings, but one of them is this reminder of Peter’s denial. The Church does not try to gloss over Peter’s failure. It is right there in the Gospel. Peter had great strengths, but he also had very real weaknesses. He fell badly, but the important thing is that he continued. He returned to Christ, he kept following him, and he continued to carry out the mission that Jesus had entrusted to him.

This gives us a third way of thinking about Peter as a rock. Because Peter continued to follow Jesus, even after his failures, he became a kind of foundation stone for others. Through his faith, his preaching, his leadership, and ultimately his martyrdom, Peter helped to build up the early Church and to lay a foundation for those who would come after him. We see this represented in a very physical and beautiful way at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The first basilica there was built by Constantine in the fourth century over the place that Christians had long venerated as the burial place of Peter. The tradition was always that Peter’s tomb lay beneath the high altar, but for centuries the burial place itself was not visible. Then, beginning in 1939, archaeological excavations were carried out beneath the basilica. The excavators discovered an ancient Roman necropolis and, directly beneath the high altar, the area that early Christians had venerated as Peter’s tomb. There is something very moving about that. St. Peter’s Basilica is, of course, a church dedicated ultimately to the worship of Jesus Christ. Christ remains the centre. Yet beneath the basilica lies the burial place of this disciple who followed Jesus. Peter is literally beneath the church. People walk above him, and in a beautiful way that is exactly what his life became. He played his part. He used the gifts Christ had given him, and through his faith, his failures, and his perseverance, he helped build up the Church so that others could come after him.

Peter, then, is a rock in several ways. He is a rock because of his strong faith. He is also a very human rock, sometimes slow to understand and capable of serious failure. But perhaps most importantly for us, he is a rock because he never stopped returning to Christ. He continued to follow Jesus, and because he did, his life became a foundation on which others could build. The same is true for us. St. Paul frequently describes the Church as a building, and Christians as the living stones from which that building is constructed. You can imagine any wall made from stone. When one stone is missing, something is lacking. The wall is not as strong or as complete as it could be. Each one of us has a role to play in building up the Church, the Body of Christ, and our own community here at St. Peter’s.

We do not have to be perfect in order to do that. Peter certainly was not. We will misunderstand things, we will make mistakes, and we will fall at times, but like Peter, we are called to return to Christ, to continue following him, and to keep using whatever gifts God has given us. Today, then, let us pray for the intercession of our patron, St. Peter, the rock upon whom Christ chose to build his Church. Let us also remember that through our baptism we too are called to play our part in building up the Church. May St. Peter help us to have the faith to keep following Christ, the humility to return when we fall, and the courage to use our gifts so that we too can help build up the Church for those who will come after us.

Why Did Jesus Call the Canaanite Woman a Dog?

 20 Sunday in Ordinary Time

In the Gospel encounter with the Canaanite woman, Jesus' words can initially sound harsh and even shocking. By looking at the wider context, we discover a passage about God's salvation opening to the Gentiles and a woman whose remarkable faith refuses to give up when obstacles are placed before her. Her perseverance becomes a model for us when prayer seems unanswered, personal growth feels slow, or God's plans unfold according to a timetable very different from our own.

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Today's Gospel is a challenging one because, if you're like me, after hearing it you might think to yourself, “Jesus didn't really call that woman a dog, did he?” But when we look carefully at the passage, it seems that he did. This woman, who is a Canaanite, comes to Jesus because her daughter needs healing. She asks him for this grace, this assistance, this help, and Jesus responds by saying, “It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.” At first glance, it really does seem as though Jesus is calling this woman a dog. So what exactly is going on here?

There are a few possibilities we might consider. One possibility, at least hypothetically, is that Jesus is simply being rude to this woman or sharing in the prejudices of his time. Some Jewish people, though certainly not all, looked down on Gentiles, people who were not Jewish. Unfortunately, as happens in every time and place, people can fall into the temptation of looking down on those who are different from them or who do not belong to their community. One of the insulting terms sometimes used for Gentiles was “dogs.” This Canaanite woman from the region of Tyre and Sidon is certainly not Jewish, so the language Jesus uses has a cultural background. Still, it would be very difficult to conclude that Jesus is simply sharing in this prejudice, especially when we look carefully at the wider context of the passage.

Another possibility is that Jesus is learning something new about his mission from this woman. Certainly, this Canaanite woman is praised for her faith, and she is presented as a model of faith and perseverance for all of us. Yet the context suggests that Jesus already knows what he is doing. His encounter with her does not happen accidentally. Jesus has deliberately travelled into Gentile territory, and this interaction forms part of a larger movement in his ministry.

To understand this, we need to look at what happens immediately before this passage in the Gospel of Matthew. Just before Jesus meets the Canaanite woman, he has a debate with the Jewish religious leaders about clean and unclean foods. According to Jewish religious practice, certain foods were considered unclean, and eating them could make a person ritually unclean. Jesus teaches something quite radical. He says that what enters a person from outside does not make that person unclean. Rather, what truly makes us unclean is what comes from within, from the human heart: our evil actions, our malice, our anger, our jealousy, and the other sins that separate us from God and from one another.

Immediately after this teaching, Jesus makes the decision to travel into the region of Tyre and Sidon, which is Gentile territory. That movement is very important. Jesus has just challenged the idea that certain foods can make a person unclean, and now he goes into a place inhabited by people whom some Jewish people might also have considered unclean. In a sense, after declaring that foods should not simply be divided into clean and unclean, Jesus now shows that people cannot simply be divided into clean and unclean either. There are no people who stand outside the love and embrace of God.

Jesus is showing that he is not simply the Messiah for the people of Israel. God's salvation is intended for the Gentiles as well. In doing this, Jesus is fulfilling the hope expressed by the prophet Isaiah, who looked forward to a time when people from all the nations would come to worship the God of Israel and would become part of God's family. The encounter with this Canaanite woman becomes one concrete sign that this promise is beginning to be fulfilled.

But even after recognizing all of this, we still have to deal with the difficult question: why does Jesus speak to this woman about dogs? One thing that is important to remember whenever we read Scripture is that we cannot hear Jesus' tone of voice. We have the words, but we do not have the tone, the facial expression, or the gestures that accompanied them. There is a great difference between saying harshly, “It is not right to take the children's food and give it to the dogs,” and saying the same words in a way that invites a response, almost as though Jesus were saying, “It is not right to take the children's food and give it to the dogs, is it?”

It seems that Jesus is doing with this woman something he does elsewhere in the Gospels. At times, when someone comes to Jesus seeking healing or some other grace, Jesus does not immediately give the person what they ask for. He puts an obstacle in front of them. He allows the encounter to become difficult so that something deeper can be drawn out of the person. Their faith, their trust, or their perseverance is given an opportunity to become visible, perhaps even to themselves.

There is an old story that illustrates this idea. A young man once wanted to join a monastery and become a monk. He travelled out into the wilderness where the monastery was located and knocked on the great front doors. A monk opened the door, and the young man explained that he wanted to join the community. The monk replied, “I'm sorry, you don't have what it takes. Please go away,” and then he shut the doors. The young man, however, did not leave. He remained outside the monastery all day. As evening began to fall, he knocked again. The monk opened the door and said, “What are you still doing here? I already told you that this life isn't for you. You should go home.” Once again, the doors were closed.

Still the young man persevered. He stayed outside the monastery throughout the night, and in the morning he knocked on the doors once again. This time, when the monk opened the door and heard once more that the young man wanted to become a monk, he embraced him and said, “Welcome, brother,” and brought him inside. Perhaps the monk's behaviour seems a little harsh, but the point of the story is that he wanted the young man to discover how deeply he truly desired this life. Was this just a passing idea? Was he perhaps running away from something else? Or did he really want to give his life to God in this particular way?

Something similar seems to be happening between Jesus and the Canaanite woman. Jesus places obstacles in front of her, but she continues forward. She does not allow herself to be discouraged, and her response to Jesus is remarkably clever. When Jesus says that it is not right to take the children's food and give it to the dogs, she replies that even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from their master's table.

The woman takes Jesus' image and reframes it. The insulting image of Gentiles as dogs would normally suggest wild dogs outside the household, but she speaks instead about household dogs, animals that live within the home and receive food from the table. In effect, she is saying, “Perhaps I am not one of the children of Israel, but surely there is still something at God's table for me.” Jesus recognizes the depth of her faith and praises her for it. She has trusted that God's mercy is large enough to include her, and she refuses to give up.

This encounter therefore becomes an important moment in Jesus' ministry. God's grace and salvation are not restricted to Israel. They are being offered to the nations as well, and this Canaanite woman becomes a sign of that widening mission. At the same time, she becomes a powerful example for all of us of the importance of perseverance. She continues to trust even when the path becomes difficult and even when, at first, it seems as though Jesus is not going to give her what she asks for.

We need that same perseverance in many areas of our lives. Sometimes we pray for something and nothing seems to happen. We pray for healing, for help in our family, for a change in some difficult situation, and the answer does not seem to come. Sometimes we are trying to overcome a bad habit or build a good one, but progress is painfully slow. Sometimes we are trying to repair a relationship that has been damaged, and despite our best efforts, we do not seem to be getting anywhere. In those moments, it is very easy to become discouraged and simply give up.

The Canaanite woman reminds us that perseverance itself can become a place in which God is working. When we persevere in prayer, God may be preparing our hearts to receive something greater than what we originally asked for, or perhaps to receive the answer in a different way than we expected. When we persevere in trying to overcome a weakness, God may be teaching us more deeply about his mercy and giving us greater compassion for other people who struggle. When we persevere in trying to repair a relationship, even if we cannot control the response of the other person, God can still use that perseverance to change us and make us more patient, humble, and loving.

God's work does not always happen according to our timeline. The Canaanite woman reminds us that Christ desires to give his healing, grace, and salvation to all, but the way in which that grace comes into our lives may require patience and perseverance. Sometimes the obstacle itself becomes part of the way God helps our faith to grow.

Let us ask, then, for the grace to persevere like this remarkable woman. When prayer seems unanswered, when growth seems slow, or when the path ahead becomes difficult, let us continue to trust that Christ is still present and still at work. Even when we cannot yet see what God is doing, we can trust that he is preparing our hearts and leading us toward something good.

Stepping Out of the Boat: Finding Christ in Troubled Waters

19 Sunday of Ordinary Time

The Bible presents the sea as both beautiful and life-giving, yet also as a symbol of chaos, danger, and forces beyond human control. In the Gospel, Jesus reveals his divine authority by walking upon the troubled waters and inviting Peter to step out of the boat and come toward him. Christ similarly calls us to enter the uncertain places of our lives with our eyes fixed on him, trusting that what appears frightening can become a place of grace, growth, and new life.

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Since I was a young kid, I have always loved the ocean. I find it beautiful simply to look at, especially when the sun is rising or setting over the water: to listen to the waves roll in, to go swimming, to go out on a boat, or to go fishing. The ocean has always had for me a sense of beauty and majesty.

At the same time, the ocean can also be a scary place. I remember rowing a small boat out into deeper water. When the water gets deep, it becomes so dark that you cannot see what is beneath you. Then your imagination begins to take over, and you start wondering what might be lurking down there in the depths.

The ocean, then, has this kind of duality. On the one hand, it is beautiful, life-giving, and good. On the other hand, it can be dangerous and chaotic.

This same understanding of the ocean is very strong in the Old Testament. It appears time and time again.

On the one hand, the sea represents chaos and danger. In the Psalms, we read about sailors terrified by storms and waves. In the opening pages of Genesis, the waters are associated with chaos. Later, in the Psalms and the Book of Job, we even hear about great sea creatures such as Leviathan and Rahab, which represent forces that threaten human beings.

At the same time, the Bible also presents the sea as something good. In Genesis 1, it is part of God's creation. It teems with living creatures and provides food. The Bible also speaks about the majesty of the sea. It is God's creation, something beautiful and life-giving.

But there is an even more important point that runs throughout the Old Testament: God is able to bring goodness, life, and salvation through the chaos and danger of the waters.

We see this clearly in two places.

First, in Genesis 1, God brings order out of the chaotic waters, and from them he creates a world filled with life.

Second, in the Book of Exodus, it is through the waters of the Red Sea that God liberates Israel from slavery. What appears to be a place of danger becomes the very place through which God saves his people.

In the Old Testament, then, the sea can represent danger and chaos, but because of God's power, it can also become a place of life and salvation.

In today's Gospel, Jesus steps, quite literally, into this biblical symbolism of the sea.

To understand what is happening, it is important to remember this Old Testament background.

Jesus has just multiplied the loaves and fed the crowd. Now his disciples are crossing the Sea of Galilee. They are in a boat surrounded by wind and waves, experiencing the danger and chaos that the sea represents.

Then, all of a sudden, Jesus comes toward them, peacefully and calmly walking across the water.

And he tells them not to be afraid.

Jesus has already shown his power by multiplying the loaves and giving food to the people. Now he reveals something even deeper about who he is.

In the Old Testament, God has power over the waters. God brings creation out of the chaotic waters, and God leads Israel safely through the Red Sea. Now Jesus shows that he possesses this same authority.

He walks upon the chaotic waters and is not overcome by them.

The Gospel is showing us something about the divinity of Christ. In the midst of chaos and fear, Jesus has the power to bring peace, goodness, and salvation.

But the story goes even further.

Jesus invites Peter to step out of the boat and come toward him.

Peter has the courage to do it. For a time, he walks toward Jesus on the water. But then he notices the wind and the waves. He becomes afraid, begins to sink, and Jesus reaches out to save him.

This becomes a powerful image for our own lives.

Each of us faces troubled or uncertain waters.

Perhaps we are going through a major life change: retirement, starting a new job, deciding to get married or have children, discerning a vocation to religious life, or taking on some new responsibility.

Perhaps the uncertainty is in one of our relationships. We may be thinking about reaching out to a family member or friend after a relationship has broken down. There is risk involved in that. We do not know how the other person will respond.

These kinds of situations can feel like troubled waters. They are uncertain, and sometimes they are frightening.

Our instinct can be to stay in the boat, to remain with what is familiar and comfortable.

But sometimes Jesus calls us out of the boat.

He invites us to enter into those uncertain situations with him.

If we always remain where we feel completely safe and comfortable, we may miss the new possibilities that Christ is placing before us.

It is often in those uncertain places that grace can come, new possibilities can arise, relationships can be healed, and our gifts can be used in new ways.

The Gospel does not tell us that the waters will always be calm. Peter still experiences the wind and the waves. The important thing is that he keeps his attention on Jesus.

The same is true for us.

When we remain close to Christ, the troubled waters of our lives can become places where God brings something good. What first appears to be only uncertainty or risk can become an opportunity for growth, peace, and new life, not only for us but also for those around us.

Jesus continues to invite us onto those waters of our lives that can seem frightening: new directions, new relationships, new responsibilities, new ways of using the gifts we have been given.

It can be more comfortable to remain in the boat.

But sometimes Christ is waiting for us out on the water.

Let us pray today for the courage to recognize his invitation, to keep our eyes fixed on him, and, when he calls us, to step out of the boat and journey with him into those uncertain waters.