“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
Popular opinion about Jesus is always divided. There are nearly as many opinions about who he was and what he did as there are people. Further, the opinions of the masses, insofar as they conduce to soundbites, only capture part of the reality.
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
Trying to determine the identity of Jesus using the wisdom of crowds or popular opinion is a doomed project. Even scholarly consensus is insufficient. Jesus knew and warned that he would be a deeply divisive figure, even dividing families against themselves. There was simply too much personally at stake for anyone who would answer the question for there to be any room for neutral ground. Objective opinion, if it could exist, could nevertheless not be disinterested or allow one to remain uninvolved.
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said in reply,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Rather than subject ourselves to the various opinions, limited perspectives, and merely human interpretations of Jesus that the world readily supplies, we are called to answer this question ourselves in the depths of our own hearts. We are called to revisit our answer again and again to ensure that all of the consequences it are being realized in our lives. If Jesus is who we believe him to be are we living in accord with that reality?
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.
Though we must answer the question individually we do not have to answer it alone. The Father himself desires to reveal his Son to us. He sees that our faith is weak and imperfect and desires to answer us when we pray, "Heal my unbelief."
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.
Over and against popular opinion Jesus established his Church to be the place where we could be certain of the truth about him, the place where the keys of authoritative teaching and certainty of forgiveness could be found. This does not exempt us from the need to put the question about the identity of Jesus to ourselves and to answer it from our hearts. But it is meant to be the place where our individual confessions find substance and stability when united to the graced confession of Peter himself, upheld and explicated by his successors the popes.
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.
We are all meant to confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Yet we do not all become the foundation stone of his Church or receive the keys of the royal steward (see Isaiah 22:22) or receive the ability to bind and loose doctrine or sin. Even so, we do become living stones that are meant to be built in this initial foundation established by Jesus himself. We see in the Church the fullness of revelation sustained across the ages. The smaller individual revelation we are each meant to receive call us to join ourselves to that Church. Our faith cannot substitute for that of Peter, but neither can Peter's substitute for our own. They are meant to join together in a larger project of Jesus himself. This is the context, the only context, where victory over the gates of the netherworld becomes possible.
Tend the flock of God in your midst,
overseeing not by constraint but willingly,
as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly.
The authority of the Church is meant to be ordered to the service of the lay faithful. Although it has not always actually embodied this reality it is the heart toward which it strives, from which it sometimes falls, but to which it must return again and again. As Jesus taught, authority must not be lorded over those who are under it. Yet an institution made up of humans such as the Church will constantly be tempted to wield authority to dominate. Even when we see this happening we are called to recognize the core graces that are always preserved in the heart of the Church, to do our part to seek them, and to know that there is a bigger story unfolding than the story of our fallen tendencies. Jesus himself is constantly working to prune and renew his bride, so that she may be spotless on the day of glory. If Jesus himself so values his bride than we too must remain faithful even at times when she seems less than impressive. We can trust that over all our earthly shepherds there is a heavenly shepherd still at work.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
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