Confraternity of Saint Peter Petrinian catechesis of Pope Benedict XVI
Feast of the Chair of St Peter
General audience, Wednesday, 22
February 2006
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today, the
Latin-rite liturgy celebrates the Feast of the Chair of St Peter. This is a
very ancient tradition, proven to have existed in Rome since the fourth
century. On it we give thanks to God for the mission he entrusted to the
Apostle Peter and his Successors.
"Cathedra"
literally means the established seat of the Bishop, placed in the mother church
of a diocese which for this reason is known as a "cathedral"; it is
the symbol of the Bishop's authority and in particular, of his "magisterium",
that is, the evangelical teaching which, as a successor of the Apostles, he is
called to safeguard and to transmit to the Christian Community.
When a
Bishop takes possession of the particular Church that has been entrusted to
him, wearing his mitre and holding the pastoral staff, he sits on the cathedra.
From this seat, as teacher and pastor, he will guide the journey of the
faithful in faith, hope and charity.
So what was the "Chair" of St Peter? Chosen by Christ as the
"rock" on which to build the Church (cf. Mt 16: 18), he began
his ministry in Jerusalem, after the Ascension of the Lord and Pentecost. The
Church's first "seat" was the Upper Room, and it is likely that a
special place was reserved for Simon Peter in that room where Mary, Mother of
Jesus, also prayed with the disciples.
Subsequently,
the See of Peter was Antioch, a city located on the Oronte River in Syria,
today Turkey, which at the time was the third metropolis of the Roman Empire
after Rome and Alexandria in Egypt. Peter was the first Bishop of that city,
which was evangelized by Barnabas and Paul, where "the disciples were for
the first time called Christians" (Acts 11: 26), and consequently
where our name "Christians" came into being. In fact, the Roman
Martyrology, prior to the reform of the calendar, also established a specific
celebration of the Chair of Peter in Antioch.
From there,
Providence led Peter to Rome. Therefore, we have the journey from Jerusalem,
the newly born Church, to Antioch, the first centre of the Church formed from
pagans and also still united with the Church that came from the Jews. Then
Peter went to Rome, the centre of the Empire, the symbol of the
"Orbis" - the "Urbs", which expresses "Orbis",
the earth, where he ended his race at the service of the Gospel with martyrdom.
So it is
that the See of Rome, which had received the greatest of honours, also has the
honour that Christ entrusted to Peter of being at the service of all the
particular Churches for the edification and unity of the entire People of God.
The See of
Rome, after St Peter's travels, thus came to be recognized as the See of the
Successor of Peter, and its Bishop's "cathedra" represented the
mission entrusted to him by Christ to tend his entire flock.
This is
testified by the most ancient Fathers of the Church, such as, for example, St
Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, but who came from Asia Minor, who in his treatise Adversus
Haereses, describes the Church of Rome as the "greatest and most
ancient, known by all... founded and established in Rome by the two most
glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul"; and he added: "The
universal Church, that is, the faithful everywhere, must be in agreement with
this Church because of her outstanding superiority" (III, 3, 2-3).
Tertullian,
a little later, said for his part: "How blessed is the Church of
Rome, on which the Apostles poured forth all their doctrine along with their
blood!" (De Praescriptione Hereticorum, 36).
Consequently, the Chair of the Bishop of Rome represents not only his service
to the Roman community but also his mission as guide of the entire People of
God.
Celebrating the "Chair" of Peter, therefore, as we are doing today,
means attributing a strong spiritual significance to it and recognizing it as a
privileged sign of the love of God, the eternal Good Shepherd, who wanted to
gather his whole Church and lead her on the path of salvation.
Among the
numerous testimonies of the Fathers, I would like to quote St Jerome's. It is
an extract from one of his letters, addressed to the Bishop of Rome. It is especially
interesting precisely because it makes an explicit reference to the
"Chair" of Peter, presenting it as a safe harbour of truth and peace.
This is
what Jerome wrote: "I decided to consult the Chair of Peter, where
that faith is found exalted by the lips of an Apostle; I now come to ask for
nourishment for my soul there, where once I received the garment of Christ. I
follow no leader save Christ, so I enter into communion with your beatitude,
that is, with the Chair of Peter, for this I know is the rock upon which the
Church is built" (cf. Le lettere I, 15, 1-2).
Dear
brothers and sisters, in the apse of St Peter's Basilica, as you know, is the
monument to the Chair of the Apostle, a mature work of Bernini. It is in the
form of a great bronze throne supported by the statues of four Doctors of the
Church: two from the West, St Augustine and St Ambrose, and two from the
East: St John Chrysostom and St Athanasius.
I invite
you to pause before this evocative work which today can be admired, decorated
with myriads of candles, and to say a special prayer for the ministry that God
has entrusted to me. Raise your eyes to the alabaster glass window located
directly above the Chair and call upon the Holy Spirit, so that with his
enlightenment and power, he will always sustain my daily service to the entire
Church. For this, as for your devoted attention, I thank you from my heart.
© Copyright
2006 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20060222_en.html
Peter,
the Fisherman
General audience, Wednesday, 17 May
2006
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In the new
series of Catecheses, we have tried above all to understand better what the
Church is and what idea the Lord has about this new family of his. Then we said
that the Church exists in people, and we have seen that the Lord entrusted this
new reality, the Church, to the Twelve Apostles. Let us now look at them one by
one, to understand through these people what it means to experience the Church
and what it means to follow Jesus. We begin with St Peter.
After
Jesus, Peter is the figure best known and most frequently cited in the New
Testament writings: he is mentioned 154 times with the nickname of Pétros,
"rock", which is the Greek translation of the Aramaic name Jesus
gave him directly: Cephas, attested to nine times, especially in
Paul's Letters; then the frequently occurring name Simon (75 times) must
be added; this is a hellenization of his original Hebrew name
"Symeon" (twice: Acts 15: 14; II Pt 1: 1).
Son of John
(cf. Jn 1: 42) or, in the Aramaic form, "Bar-Jona, son of Jona"
(cf. Mt 16: 17), Simon was from Bethsaida (cf. Jn 1: 44), a little
town to the east of the Sea of Galilee, from which Philip also came and of
course, Andrew, the brother of Simon.
He spoke
with a Galilean accent. Like his brother, he too was a fisherman: with
the family of Zebedee, the father of James and John, he ran a small fishing
business on the Lake of Gennesaret (cf. Lk 5: 10). Thus, he must have been
reasonably well-off and was motivated by a sincere interest in religion, by a
desire for God - he wanted God to intervene in the world -, a desire that
impelled him to go with his brother as far as Judea to hear the preaching of
John the Baptist (Jn 1: 35-42).
He was a
believing and practising Jew who trusted in the active presence of God in his
people's history and grieved not to see God's powerful action in the events he
was witnessing at that time. He was married and his mother-in-law, whom Jesus
was one day to heal, lived in the city of Capernaum, in the house where Simon
also stayed when he was in that town (cf. Mt 8: 14ff.; Mk 1: 29ff.;
Lk 4: 38ff.).
Recent
archaeological excavations have brought to light, beneath the octagonal mosaic
paving of a small Byzantine church, the remains of a more ancient church built
in that house, as the graffiti with invocations to Peter testify.
The Gospels
tell us that Peter was one of the first four disciples of the Nazarene (cf. Lk
5: 1-11), to whom a fifth was added, complying with the custom of every
Rabbi to have five disciples (cf. Lk 5: 27: called Levi). When Jesus
went from five disciples to 12 (cf. Lk 9: 1-6), the newness of his mission
became evident: he was not one of the numerous rabbis but had come to
gather together the eschatological Israel, symbolized by the number 12, the
number of the tribes of Israel.
Simon appears in the Gospels with a determined and impulsive character:
he is ready to assert his own opinions even with force (remember him using the
sword in the Garden of Olives: cf. Jn 18: 10ff.). At the same time
he is also ingenuous and fearful, yet he is honest, to the point of the most
sincere repentance (cf. Mt 26: 75).
The Gospels
enable us to follow Peter step by step on his spiritual journey. The starting
point was Jesus' call. It happened on an ordinary day while Peter was busy with
his fisherman's tasks. Jesus was at the Lake of Gennesaret and crowds had
gathered around him to listen to him. The size of his audience created a
certain discomfort. The Teacher saw two boats moored by the shore; the
fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. He then asked permission
to board the boat, which was Simon's, and requested him to put out a little
from the land. Sitting on that improvised seat, he began to teach the crowds
from the boat (cf. Lk 5: 1-3). Thus, the boat of Peter becomes the chair of
Jesus.
When he had
finished speaking he said to Simon: "Put out into the deep and let
down your nets for a catch". And Simon answered, "Master, we toiled
all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets" (Lk
5: 4-5). Jesus, a carpenter, was not a skilled fisherman: yet Simon
the fisherman trusted this Rabbi, who did not give him answers but required him
to trust him.
His
reaction to the miraculous catch showed his amazement and fear:
"Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (Lk 5: 8). Jesus
replied by inviting him to trust and to be open to a project that would surpass
all his expectations. "Do not be afraid; henceforth, you will be catching
men" (Lk 5: 10). Peter could not yet imagine that one day he would
arrive in Rome and that here he would be a "fisher of men" for the
Lord. He accepted this surprising call, he let himself be involved in this
great adventure: he was generous; he recognized his limits but believed
in the one who was calling him and followed the dream of his heart. He said
"yes", a courageous and generous "yes", and became a
disciple of Jesus.
Peter was
to live another important moment of his spiritual journey near Caesarea
Philippi when Jesus asked the disciples a precise question: "Who do
men say that I am?" (Mk 8: 27). But for Jesus hearsay did not
suffice. He wanted from those who had agreed to be personally involved with him
a personal statement of their position. Consequently, he insisted:
"But who do you say that I am?" (Mk 8: 29).
It was Peter who answered on behalf of the others: "You are the
Christ" (ibid.), that is, the Messiah. Peter's answer, which was
not revealed to him by "flesh and blood" but was given to him by the
Father who is in heaven (cf. Mt 16: 17), contains as in a seed the future
confession of faith of the Church. However, Peter had not yet understood the
profound content of Jesus' Messianic mission, the new meaning of this
word: Messiah.
He
demonstrates this a little later, inferring that the Messiah whom he is
following in his dreams is very different from God's true plan. He was shocked
by the Lord's announcement of the Passion and protested, prompting a lively
reaction from Jesus (cf. Mk 8: 32-33).
Peter
wanted as Messiah a "divine man" who would fulfil the expectations of
the people by imposing his power upon them all: we would also like the
Lord to impose his power and transform the world instantly. Jesus presented
himself as a "human God", the Servant of God, who turned the crowd's
expectations upside-down by taking a path of humility and suffering.
This is the
great alternative that we must learn over and over again: to give
priority to our own expectations, rejecting Jesus, or to accept Jesus in the
truth of his mission and set aside all too human expectations.
Peter,
impulsive as he was, did not hesitate to take Jesus aside and rebuke him.
Jesus' answer demolished all his false expectations, calling him to conversion
and to follow him: "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the
side of God, but of men" (Mk 8: 33). It is not for you to show me the
way; I take my own way and you should follow me.
Peter thus
learned what following Jesus truly means. It was his second call, similar to
Abraham's in Genesis 22, after that in Genesis 12: "If any man would
come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For
whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my
sake and the Gospel's will save it" (Mk 8: 34-35). This is the
demanding rule of the following of Christ: one must be able, if
necessary, to give up the whole world to save the true values, to save the
soul, to save the presence of God in the world (cf. Mk 8: 36-37). And
though with difficulty, Peter accepted the invitation and continued his life in
the Master's footsteps.
And it
seems to me that these conversions of St Peter on different occasions, and his
whole figure, are a great consolation and a great lesson for us. We too have a
desire for God, we too want to be generous, but we too expect God to be strong
in the world and to transform the world on the spot, according to our ideas and
the needs that we perceive.
God chooses
a different way. God chooses the way of the transformation of hearts in
suffering and in humility. And we, like Peter, must convert, over and over
again. We must follow Jesus and not go before him: it is he who shows us
the way.
So it is
that Peter tells us: You think you have the recipe and that it is up to
you to transform Christianity, but it is the Lord who knows the way. It is the
Lord who says to me, who says to you: follow me! And we must have the
courage and humility to follow Jesus, because he is the Way, the Truth and the
Life.
© Copyright
2006 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20060517_en.html
Peter,
the Apostle
General audience, Wednesday, 24 May
2006
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In these
Catecheses, we are meditating on the Church. We said that the Church lives in
people and therefore, in last week's Catechesis, we began to meditate on the
characters of the individual Apostles, beginning with St Peter.
We examined
two decisive stages of his life: the call [to follow Jesus] near the Sea
of Galilee, and then the confession of faith: "You are Christ, the
Messiah". It is a confession, we said, that is still lacking, initial and
yet open. St Peter puts himself on a path of "sequela", following.
And so, this initial confession carries within it, like a seed, the future
faith of the Church.
Today, we
want to consider another two important events in the life of St Peter:
the multiplication of the loaves - we heard the Lord's question and St Peter's
reply in the Gospel passage just read - and then the Lord who calls Peter to be
Pastor of the universal Church.
Let us now begin with the multiplication of the loaves. You know that the
people had been listening to the Lord for hours. At the end, Jesus says:
They are tired and hungry, we must give these people something to eat. The
Apostles ask: But how? And Andrew, Peter's brother, draws Jesus'
attention to a boy who had with him five loaves of bread and two fish. But what
is this for so many people, the Apostles ask.
The Lord
has the crowd be seated and these five loaves and two fish distributed. And the
hunger of everyone is satisfied; what is more, the Lord gives the Apostles -
Peter among them - the duty to collect the abundant leftovers: 12 baskets
of bread (cf. Jn 6: 12-13).
Afterwards,
the people, seeing this miracle - that seemed to be the much-awaited renewal of
a new "manna", of the gift of bread from heaven -, wanted to make him
king. But Jesus does not accept and withdraws into the hills by himself to
pray. The following day, on the other side of the lake in the Synagogue of
Capernaum, Jesus explained the miracle - not in the sense of a kingship over
Israel with a worldly power in the way the crowds hoped, but in the sense of the
gift of self: "The bread which I shall give for the life of the
world is my flesh" (Jn 6: 51).
Jesus
announces the Cross and with the Cross the true multiplication of the loaves,
the Eucharistic bread - his absolutely new way of kingship, a way completely
contrary to the expectations of the people.
We can
understand that these words of the Master, who does not want to multiply bread
every day, who does not want to offer Israel a worldly power, would be really
difficult, indeed, unacceptable, for the people. "He gives his
flesh": what does this mean?
Even for
the disciples what Jesus says in this moment seems unacceptable. It was and is
for our heart, for our mentality, a "hard saying" which is a trial of
faith (cf. Jn 6: 60). Many of the disciples went away. They wanted someone
who would truly renew the State of Israel, of his people, and not one who
said: "I give my flesh".
We can imagine that the words of Jesus were difficult for Peter too, who at
Caesarea Philippi he protested at the prophesy of the Cross. However, when
Jesus asked the Twelve: "Will you also go away?", Peter reacted
with the enthusiasm of his generous heart, guided by the Holy Spirit.
Speaking on
everyone's behalf, he answered with immortal words, which are also our
words: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of
God" (cf. Jn 6: 66-69).
Here, like
at Caesarea, Peter begins with his words the confession of the Church's
Christological faith and becomes spokesman also for the other Apostles, and of
we believers of all times. This does not mean that he had already understood
the mystery of Christ in all its depth; his faith was still at the beginning of
a journey of faith. It would reach its true fullness only through the
experience of the Paschal events.
Nonetheless,
it was already faith, open to the greatest reality; open especially because it
was not faith in something, it was faith in Someone: in him, Christ.
And so, our
faith too is always an initial one and we have still to carry out a great
journey. But it is essential that it is an open faith and that we allow
ourselves to be led by Jesus, because he does not only know the Way, but he is
the Way.
Peter's
rash generosity does not protect him, however, from the risks connected with
human weakness. Moreover, it is what we too can recognize in our own lives.
Peter followed Jesus with enthusiasm, he overcame the trial of faith,
abandoning himself to Christ. The moment comes, however, when he gives in to
fear and falls: he betrays the Master (cf. Mk 14: 66-72).
The school
of faith is not a triumphal march but a journey marked daily by suffering and
love, trials and faithfulness. Peter, who promised absolute fidelity, knew the bitterness
and humiliation of denial: the arrogant man learns the costly lesson of
humility. Peter, too, must learn that he is weak and in need of forgiveness.
Once his attitude changes and he understands the truth of his weak heart of a
believing sinner, he weeps in a fit of liberating repentance. After this
weeping he is finally ready for his mission.
On a spring
morning, this mission will be entrusted to him by the Risen Christ. The
encounter takes place on the shore of the Lake of Tiberias. John the Evangelist
recounts the conversation between Jesus and Peter in that circumstance. There
is a very significant play on words.
In Greek,
the word "fileo" means the love of friendship, tender but not
all-encompassing; instead, the word "agapao" means love without
reserve, total and unconditional. Jesus asks Peter the first time:
"Simon... do you love me (agapas-me)" with this total and
unconditional love (Jn 21: 15)?
Prior to
the experience of betrayal, the Apostle certainly would have said:
"I love you (agapo-se) unconditionally". Now that he has known
the bitter sadness of infidelity, the drama of his own weakness, he says with
humility: "Lord; you know that I love you (filo-se)",
that is, "I love you with my poor human love". Christ insists:
"Simon, do you love me with this total love that I want?". And Peter
repeats the response of his humble human love: "Kyrie,
filo-se", "Lord, I love you as I am able to love you". The
third time Jesus only says to Simon: "Fileis-me?", "Do
you love me?".
Simon understands
that his poor love is enough for Jesus, it is the only one of which he is
capable, nonetheless he is grieved that the Lord spoke to him in this way. He
thus replies: "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you (filo-se)".
This is to
say that Jesus has put himself on the level of Peter, rather than Peter on
Jesus' level! It is exactly this divine conformity that gives hope to the
Disciple, who experienced the pain of infidelity.
From here
is born the trust that makes him able to follow [Christ] to the end:
"This he said to show by what death he was to glorify God. And after this
he said to him, "Follow me'" (Jn 21: 19).
From that
day, Peter "followed" the Master with the precise awareness of his
own fragility; but this understanding did not discourage him. Indeed, he knew
that he could count on the presence of the Risen One beside him.
From the
naïve enthusiasm of initial acceptance, passing though the sorrowful experience
of denial and the weeping of conversion, Peter succeeded in entrusting himself
to that Jesus who adapted himself to his poor capacity of love. And in this way
he shows us the way, notwithstanding all of our weakness. We know that Jesus
adapts himself to this weakness of ours.
We follow
him with our poor capacity to love and we know that Jesus is good and he
accepts us.
It was a long journey for Peter that made him a trustworthy witness,
"rock" of the Church, because he was constantly open to the action of
the Spirit of Jesus.
Peter qualifies himself as a "witness of the sufferings of Christ as well
as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed" (I Pt 5: 1). When
he was to write these words he would already be elderly, heading towards the
end of his life that will be sealed with martyrdom. He will then be ready to
describe true joy and to indicate where it can be drawn from: the source
is believing in and loving Christ with our weak but sincere faith,
notwithstanding our fragility.
He would
therefore write to the Christians of his community, and says also to us:
"Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you
believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of
your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls" (I Pt 1: 8-9).
© Copyright
2006 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20060524_en.html
Peter,
the rock
General audience, Wednesday, 7 June
2006
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We are
returning to the weekly Catecheses that we began this spring. In the last
Catechesis two weeks ago, I spoke of Peter as the first of the Apostles; today
let us return once again to this great and important figure of the Church.
In
recounting Jesus' first meeting with Simon, the brother of Andrew, John the
Evangelist records a unique event: Jesus "looked at him and said,
"So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas (which means
Peter)'" (Jn 1: 42).
It was not
Jesus' practice to change his disciples' names: apart from the nickname
"sons of thunder", which in specific circumstances he attributed to
the sons of Zebedee (cf. Mk 3: 17) and never used again. He never gave any
of his disciples a new name.
Yet, he
gave one to Simon, calling him "Cephas". This name was later
translated into Greek as Petros and into Latin as Petrus.
And it was translated precisely because it was not only a name; it was a
"mandate" that Petrus received in that way from the Lord. The
new name Petrus was to recur frequently in the Gospels and ended by
replacing "Simon", his original name.
This fact acquires special importance if one bears in mind that in the Old
Testament, a change of name usually preceded the entrustment of a mission (cf.
Gn 17: 5; 32: 28ff., etc.).
Indeed,
many signs indicate Christ's desire to give Peter special prominence within the
Apostolic College: in Capernaum the Teacher enters Peter's house (cf. Mk
1: 29); when the crowd becomes pressed on the shore of Lake Genesaret,
seeing two boats moored there, Jesus chooses Simon's (cf. Lk 5: 3); when,
on certain occasions, Jesus takes only three disciples with him, Peter is
always recorded as the first of the group: as in the raising of Jairus'
daughter (cf. Mk 5: 37; Lk 8: 51), in the Transfiguration (cf. Mk
9: 2; Mt 17: 1; Lk 9: 28) and during the agony in the Garden of
Gethsemane (cf. Mk 14: 33; Mt 26: 37). And again: the Temple
tax collectors address Peter and the Teacher pays only for himself and Peter
(cf. Mt 17: 24-27); it is Peter's feet that he washes first at the Last
Supper (cf. Jn 13: 6), and for Peter alone he prays that his faith will
not fail so that he will be able to strengthen the other disciples in faith
(cf. Lk 22: 30-31).
Moreover,
Peter himself was aware of his special position: he often also spoke on
behalf of the others, asking for the explanation of a difficult parable (cf. Mt
15: 15), the exact meaning of a precept (cf. Mt 18: 21) or the formal
promise of a reward (cf. Mt 19: 27).
It is Peter
in particular who resolves certain embarrassing situations by intervening on
behalf of all. Thus, when Jesus, saddened by the misunderstanding of the crowd
after the Bread of Life discourse, asks: "Will you also go
away?", Peter's answer is peremptory in tone: "Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (cf. Jn 6: 67-69).
Equally
decisive is the profession of faith which, again on behalf of the Twelve, he
makes near Caesarea Philippi. To Jesus' question: "But who do you
say that I am?", Peter answers: "You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God" (Mt 16: 15-16). Jesus responded by pronouncing the
solemn declaration that defines Peter's role in the Church once and for
all: "And I tell you: you are Peter, and on this rock I will
build my Church.... I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and
whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on
earth will be loosed in heaven" (Mt 16: 18-19).
In
themselves, the three metaphors that Jesus uses are crystal clear: Peter
will be the rocky foundation on which he will build the edifice of the
Church; he will have the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to open or close
it to people as he sees fit; lastly, he will be able to bind or to loose,
in the sense of establishing or prohibiting whatever he deems necessary for
the life of the Church. It is always Christ's Church, not Peter's.
Thus, vivid
images portray what the subsequent reflection will describe by the term:
"primacy of jurisdiction".
This
pre-eminent position that Jesus wanted to bestow upon Peter is also encountered
after the Resurrection: Jesus charges the women to announce it especially
to Peter, as distinct from the other Apostles (cf. Mk 16: 7); it is to
Peter and John that Mary Magdalene runs to tell them that the stone has been
rolled away from the entrance to the tomb (cf. Jn 20: 2), and John was to
stand back to let Peter enter first when they arrived at the empty tomb (cf. Jn
20: 4-6).
Then, Peter
was to be the first witness of an appearance of the Risen One (cf. Lk
24: 34; I Cor 15: 5). His role, decisively emphasized (cf. Jn
20: 3-10), marks the continuity between the pre-eminence he had in the
group of the Apostles and the pre-eminence he would continue to have in the
community born with the paschal events, as the Book of Acts testifies (cf.
1: 15-26; 2: 14-40; 3: 12-26; 4: 8-12; 5: 1-11, 29;
8: 14-17; 10; etc.).
His
behaviour was considered so decisive that it prompted remarks as well as
criticism (cf. Acts 11: 1-18; Gal 2: 11-14).
At the
so-called Council of Jerusalem Peter played a directive role (cf. Acts 15; Gal
2: 1-10), and precisely because he was a witness of authentic faith, Paul
himself recognized that he had a certain quality of "leadership" (cf.
I Cor 15: 5; Gal 1: 18; 2: 7ff., etc.).
Moreover,
the fact that several of the key texts that refer to Peter can be traced back
to the context of the Last Supper, during which Christ conferred upon Peter the
ministry of strengthening his brethren (cf. Lk 22: 31ff.), shows that the
ministry entrusted to Peter was one of the constitutive elements of the Church,
which was born from the commemoration of the Pasch celebrated in the Eucharist.
This
contextualization of the Primacy of Peter at the Last Supper, at the moment of
the Institution of the Eucharist, the Lord's Pasch, also points to the ultimate
meaning of this Primacy: Peter must be the custodian of communion with
Christ for all time. He must guide people to communion with Christ; he must
ensure that the net does not break, and consequently that universal communion
endures. Only together can we be with Christ, who is Lord of all.
Thus, Peter
is responsible for guaranteeing communion with Christ with the love of Christ,
guiding people to fulfil this love in everyday life. Let us pray that the
Primacy of Peter, entrusted to poor human beings, will always be exercised in
this original sense as the Lord desired, and that its true meaning will
therefore always be recognized by the brethren who are not yet in full
communion with us.
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2006 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20060607_en.htm
Saint Peter’s imprisonment and liberation
General audience, Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In our catechesis on Christian prayer, we now consider Saint Peter’s miraculous liberation from imprisonment on the eve of his trial in Jerusalem. Saint Luke tells us that as “the Church prayed fervently to God for him” (Acts 12:5), Peter was led forth from the prison by an Angel of light. The account of Peter’s rescue recalls both Israel’s hasty exodus from bondage in Egypt and the glory of Christ’s resurrection. Peter was sleeping, a sign of his surrender to the Lord and his trust in the prayers of the
Christian community. The fulfillment of this prayer is accompanied by immense joy, as Peter rejoins the community and bears witness to the Risen Lord’s saving power. Peter’s liberation reminds us that, especially at moments of trial, our perseverance in prayer, and the prayerful solidarity of all our brothers and sisters in Christ, sustains us in faith. As Peter’s Successor, I thank all of you for the support of your prayers and I pray that, united in constant prayer, we will all draw ever closer to the Lord
and to one another.
* * *
I offer a warm welcome to the participants in the Conference on Combatting Human Trafficking hosted by the the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. My greeting also goes to the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce from New York. Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims present at today’s Audience, including those from England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and the United States, I cordially invoke God’s abundant blessings.
© Copyright
2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20120509_en.html
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