Monthly Archives: June 2025

The First Mission – Setting the Scene

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This coming Sunday, the gospel is taken from Luke 10, but it is perhaps good to “set the scene” before we jump in the reading. Luke 8 is a chapter that offers several miracle accounts (calming the storm at sea, the healing of the Gerasene demoniac, and the healing of Jairus’s daughter and the woman with a hemorrhage) but it also contains the parable of the Sower and of the Lamp. These parables contain messages about evangelization and thus about mission to the world. It is with that as background that Jesus first sends out the 12 apostles: “He summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal [the sick]. He said to them, ‘Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic.’” (Luke 9:1-3)

Luke 9 recounts some of the key events in the story of Jesus: the feeding of the 5000, Peter’s confession about Jesus, the Transfiguration, and predictions of his passion and death. Chapter 9 is a pivot point when the story moves from Jesus gathering disciples to the preparation for their mission to the world in the post-Resurrection epoch. At the end of the chapter, Jesus and his followers set out for Jerusalem and immediately He and his disciples began to experience resistance. They are rejected in the towns of Samaria (vv.51-56). The Apostles James and John’s reaction to this rejection was “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?”

Perhaps some “cracks” are beginning to show among the followers of Jesus. At the end of Luke 9 we see people beginning to equivocate on their commitment. Jesus remarks: “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God,” a clear challenge to any would-be disciple about the reality of mission. Taken together, all this points to the coming dangers for aspiring disciples. Each scene brings the disciples’ understandings and expectations into contrast with Jesus’ own mission for the disciples. Discipleship is radical, calling for the unconditional commitment to the redemptive working of God, and to understand that God’s Kingdom has the highest priority and largest claim on one’s life. 

What comes after this?

Image credit: The Exhortation to the Apostles | James Tissot | ca. 1890 | Brooklyn Museum NYC | PD-US

What kind of person…what kind of community

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This coming Sunday the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.  As we noted at the beginning, a large part of the Matthean narrative is devoted to questions: (a) who is Jesus, (b) what does it mean to be his disciples in the light of his identity, and (c) what choices will you make because of his call.  Those are questions that could be asked of the community as well as the individual.  Fr. Ronald Rolheiser  makes that point well in his reflection “The Width of Our Ecclesial Embrace”

Nikos Kazantsakis once said “the bosom of God is not a ghetto, but our hearts often are.” So too, sadly, are our ecclesiologies.

In church circles today, both liberal and conservative, our ecclesiologies are often anything but inclusive and Catholic (“Catholic” meaning wide and universal). We are pretty selective as to whom we consent to worship with and to whom we will accord the grace and wisdom of God. We tend to pick our fellow-worshippers along ideological lines rather than along the lines that Jesus suggests and we are getting ever more fastidious. More and more within our churches the sincere are divided from the sincere and the old tensions that used to exist between denominations now also exist within each denomination.

Given all of this, it can be helpful to reground ourselves in a critical truth that Jesus revealed.

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Induction Day – US Naval Academy

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Approximately 1,200 men and women reported to Alumni Hall at the Naval Academy yesterday morning for Induction Day – Class of 2029, culminating in an Oath of Office ceremony. These incoming plebes (freshmen) said goodbye to their families and were processed through various stations inside Alumni Hall to become members of the Naval Academy’s Class of 2029. Stations include uniform issue, medical examinations, haircuts, and learning to salute. The day culminated with the Oath of Office ceremony at 6 pm on Worden Field (a new location due to the construction at T-Court) along the banks of the Severn River. After the ceremony, plebes met with their families for the last time until Plebe Parents’ Weekend, in mid-August.

Class of 2029 Stats – Men: 814 ( 10, 2987 applications); Women: 373 (4,859 applications); Minority: 511; Legacy: 38 Men, 27 Women.

As one of my classmates wrote to me: “same as it was 55 years ago… only a lot hotter”.

The Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven

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This coming Sunday the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.  Eugene Boring [346] writes:

For Matthew, each of these two kingdoms makes its influence felt by teaching. The “kingdom of heaven” is represented by authoritative teaching, the promulgation of authoritative Halakha that lets heaven’s power rule in earthly things. The image of Peter with the keys is not that of the doorkeeper to heaven of popular piety and cartoons. As the next image makes clear, Peter’s function is not to decide in the afterlife who is admitted and who is denied entrance to heaven; Peter’s role as holder of the keys is fulfilled now, on earth, as chief teacher of the church. The similar imagery of Matt 23:13 and Luke 11:52 points to the teaching office, as does the introductory pericope Matt 16:1-12 and Matthew’s concern for correct teaching in general. The keeper of the keys has authority within the house as administrator and teacher (cf. Isa 22:20-25, which may have influenced Matthew here). The language of binding and loosing is rabbinic terminology for authoritative teaching, for having the authority to interpret the Torah and apply it to particular cases, declaring what is permitted and what is not permitted. Jesus, who has taught with authority (7:29) and has given his authority to his disciples (10:1, 8), here gives the primary disciple the authority to teach in his name—to make authoritative decisions pertaining to Christian life as he applies the teaching of Jesus to concrete situations in the life of the church. In 18:18, similar authority is given to the church as a whole, and the way the last three antitheses are presented in 5:33-48…shows such application of Jesus’ teaching is the task of the whole community of disciples, with Peter having a special responsibility as chief teacher as well as representative and model.

Image Credit: Pietro Perugino, The Delivery of the Keys (c 1481–1482). Sistine Chapel, Vatican City | Public Domain

The developing Church

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This coming Sunday the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.  Jesus’ words, “upon this rock I will build my church” (v.18) has also contributed to exegetical controversy. Some scholars hold this passage is a later addition and is not authentic, but betrays a later ecclesiastical interest in interjecting that later period’s hierarchy and organization onto Jesus’ words. 

This position is fading because of the realization that ekklesia (church) regularly translates the Hebrew qāhāl, one of the terms for the ‘congregation’ or ‘community’ of God’s people – a term completely appropriate to describe the emerging ‘Messianic community’ of the disciples of Jesus.  How could there be a messiah without a messianic community?

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Jesus’ Response: an emerging church

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This coming Sunday the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. The disciples as a group had already received a blessing: “But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it”(Mt 13:16-17). Here this blessing is for Peter alone, as the plural address of v.16 shifts to the singular of v.17: Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah – notably keeping the original given name.

But the problem is….

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Christology: Three Questions

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This coming Sunday the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.  The Gospel according to Matthew accepts and uses the main Christological titles found already in the Gospel according to Mark, including Christ/Messiah, Son of God, Son of Man, Rabbi, and Teacher. But in contrast to Mark, Matthew adds several new titles and emphasizes certain aspects of Jesus’ identity. Matthew’s Gospel begins by identifying Jesus as “the son of David, the son of Abraham” (1:1), showing Jesus’ Davidic/royal and Abrahamic/Jewish heritage, respectively.  Throughout Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is presented as “the New Moses” for the people of Israel, and is given a variety of other titles, including Emmanuel, Savior, Prophet, and King of the Jews. It is in this light that our pericope asks its two questions.

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Forming the Church

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This coming Sunday the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. Our reading is located in a section of Matthean narrative that portrays the formation of the church (13:53-17:27) in the midst of the continuing conflict with all levels of Jewish society that is leaning towards a growing rejection of Jesus as Messiah. This story forms the hinge of the section because after this Jesus will heighten his attention to the preparation of the disciples for their mission as a community once Jesus has died and resurrected from the dead.  It will be a community who perceives and professes his true identity.

Crossing Over: A new theme emerges

A theme that began with Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman (15:21-28) continues with the geographical setting of the story: the region of Caesarea Philippi. Early in its history this location had been the setting of Canaanite worship to Ba’al and later a Greek temple to the god Pan (hence the name Paneas). Eventually it simply became a center of secular power under the Roman regency of Herod the Great and his son Phillip who renamed it after Tiberius Caesar and himself: Caesarea Philippi.  Is the mention of the location just a geographical touch of narrative – Luke, the “geographer” of the gospel writers, does not mention the name – so one wonders why Matthew includes it.  It is not clear, but perhaps Matthew wanted to emphasize that this significant scene took place in a setting with significant religious and secular meanings and associations.  By doing so, Matthew crosses over to confront the pantheon of gods and the power of Caesar, with the true King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

But at the same time, this scene does not really cross over into new “territory” as regards Jesus’ divine identity.  While this parallel scene in Mark is the first time Jesus’ divine identity is proclaimed by others and worship (homage) takes place, that is not true in Matthew.  Jesus’ true identity is not really new to the disciples who have heard Jesus refer to himself in christological terms, have understood it, and worshiped him as the Son of God (14:33).  The breakthrough is not christological. Matthew is crossing over to begin to explicate the ecclesiological (“being church”) dimensions of the profession and worship.  It is from here that there is a separation of the new community of believers in the Kingdom of Heaven from those who oppose and reject it.

Image Credit: Pietro Perugino, The Delivery of the Keys (c 1481–1482). Sistine Chapel, Vatican City | Public Domain

The Solemnity Gospel

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13 When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”16 Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”17 Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.18 And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.19 I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.  Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  (Matthew 16:13-19)

The three questions

This coming Sunday the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. The Gospel passage is taken from Matthew and is the scene in which Jesus gives Simon a new name, Peter, and says that He will give him the keys to the kingdom of heaven. It is a passage that well fits the  Matthean narrative devoted to the tripartite question: (a) who is Jesus, (b) what does it mean to be his disciples in the light of his identity, and (c) what choices will you make because of his call.  In the flow of the gospel our pericope is preceded by Peter walking upon the waters (Mt 14:22-33) and the encounter with the Canaanite woman (15:21-28) – and both episodes move Jesus to comment upon the faith of the disciple. These stories serve as the immediate context for our gospel about Peter’s confession and what it will mean for him in his on-going role of discipleship.

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Saints Together

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This coming Sunday is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. Most of the apostles and lots of saints have their own feast day, but how about the two most famous saints of the early church? There is February 22nd in which the Church celebrates the “Chair of Peter” the sign that Peter was the first among the apostles and the one designated to lead the early Church after Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension. But there is no “Feast of St. Peter.”

St. Paul, although not one of the Twelve, was an Apostle commissioned by Jesus. There is the January 25th celebration of “The Conversion of St. Paul” which commemorates the Damascus Road episode described in Acts of the Apostles: 9:1-31, 22:1-22, and 26:9-24. It is the scene made famous by the “Conversion on the Way to Damascus” painting by Caravaggio. But there is no “Feast of St. Paul.”

The two leading saints of the early Church are celebrated together in the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul as they are the founders of the See of Rome, through their preaching, ministry and martyrdom there. This celebration is a liturgical feast in honor of the martyrdom in Rome of the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul and is observed on June 29th – without declaring that to be the day of their deaths. St. Augustine of Hippo (late 4th century) says in his Sermon 295: “One day is assigned for the celebration of the martyrdom of the two apostles. But those two were one. Although their martyrdom occurred on different days, they were one.” Thus it is clear that the celebration is of ancient origin.

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