Gospel of Sunday
21st Sunday Year A
notes by fr Paul M. Addison OSM
First Reading: Isaiah 22, 19-23
Authority among the People of God: Firm authority (the keys of the kingdom) is given to Eliakim, son of Hikiah - part of the oracle against Shebna in Hezekiah’s government. Shebna is dismissed from his post, and Eliakim appointed, with “the key of David on his shoulder - should he open, no one shall close; should he close, no one shall open” (verse 22, which is used by the Advent Liturgy in the great “O” Antiphons of the Messiah, where Christ is called “The Key of David”).
Such a reading, coupled with the Matthew Gospel of the “keys of the kingdom of heaven” entrusted to Peter, obviously suggests a theme for today of Christ’s Authority present among the People of God.
Authority handed to Eliakim Ask yourself: is Authority handed to someone, or does they have it intrinsically? It’s like The Right to Confessional Secrecy: In 1999 the Catholic Press reported that the United Nations had given the Right to Confessional Secrecy to the Catholic Church’s priests. What rubbish! The UN has acknowledged the right, not given it. So: where Authority in the Church is concerned, and the authority handed to Eliakim in Isaiah 22, we must recognise that this authority is not - repeat not - a human authority which is intrinsic and obvious. It must never be exercised as though it were either merely human, or political or worldly... It has been handed to the Church by the Holy Spirit (Finger of God’s Right Hand) and must always be seen as a Divine revelation and a gift from God.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 137 (Hebr 138)
God’s love is faithful, uplifting. The Psalm makes reference to adoration of the Lord, possibly taking up the homage paid to Jesus in the Gospel by St. Peter. Its connection with the 1st reading seems vague.
2nd Reading: Romans 11, 33-36
Continuing our cyclical reading of the Letter to the Romans, we hear St. Paul dwell on the greatness of God in a passage that is quite splendid, “All that exists comes from him; all is by him and for him”.
Gospel: Matthew 16, 13-20
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”... “And you are Peter, and on this Rock I will build my Church”. Here we have the powerful dialogue between Jesus and Peter.
Submission in faith and love: Peter’s reply highlights the personal nature of faith, how it is not just the sum collection of your “values”, nor your “beliefs”: it is actually invested in the very person of Jesus Christ, as Son of God, God-with-us. There is a real submission (my sister Colette would say “self-giving”, since she finds the word submission degrading) a real submission in such faith, although it is not meant to be any worldly kind of submission. No wonder Jesus directed Peter and the others to be servants, and never lords!!! (Matthew, 20,26; Mark 10, 43; Luke 22, 26).
So many people cannot or will not accept the personal nature of Christian faith (“...I accept the values, even the doctrines, but I don’t need Jesus for that...”). I like to think that people often do this because the submission seems to impinge on their dignity as free, responsible persons, or seems to imply that other people are going to run their lives for them (and the Church, like many worldly organisations, can appear very prone to running people’s lives for them!!). Those people have my sympathy! I can hear their legitimate cry, “Don’t you dare tell me what to think!”, or “You don’t own me!”. Submission in love is quite something else, and even the strongest must learn it, as much as the most weak and “unliberated” of people. Anyone at all can offer this spiritual love to Christ the Son of God, and will become a much more free and human person for having done so.
This is the remarkable things about faith, that it requires the assent of the heart and the will, not just of the mind alone.
The Key: Christ’s Authority in the Church:
Last week’s theme was strongly about the universality of the Church, how it is for all, all-embracing. This week’s liturgy presents the Church as endowed with the authority of Christ. Do not mistake this for power, or control, or “lording it over people” - Jesus was severe in teaching a way that was not at all a way of worldly power or control. There is something splendid about the presentation of today’s teaching. It begins with the Messiah as “Key of David”, the one who opens the lines of communication and communion between God and the People - this assures us that, in St John’s frequently used phrase of Covenant, “God is in us and we are in God”. That is the basic revelation. Things are open and connecting now, no longer blocked or hidden. Jesus the Messiah is the authoritative presence of God among us.
Following this, the “Ecclesia” of Jesus Christ - his People, his Body, his Community, his Church - is firmly established, stronger than Hell, and endowed with his own authority. This authority is invested particularly in Peter, but also in the other apostles (“Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Mt. 18,18)
This authority is so great, that Heaven and Earth are as one (“whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven” Mt. 16, 19). This is not saying that God will go along with any stupidity that is decreed on earth. But God most certainly chooses to work through his servants on earth, and they can rest assured of God’s endorsement when they remain open to God’s revelation. Oh yes, Peter is severely rebuked just after this episode for not being open to God’s revelation (“Get behind me Satan. You are an obstacle in my path because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s” Mt. 16, 23).
More than just an organisational and disciplinary technique, the authority of Jesus in the Church is something magnificent. It is the very presence of the Holy Spirit, guiding the People of God from within their own spirits. It requires openness, it requires faith. It requires charity and mutual respect. It requires discipline and humility. But it carries with it the assurance of God, which is faithful and strong.
The Gates of Hell: I ought to study the implications of this phrase? It implies that the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven will open up such a convincing alternative to Hell and Evil, that the Gates of Hell will be thrown down, not to release Hell but to release people from Hell. Here is the Gospel liberating people from the grip of evil, as Jesus descends into to Hell and brings out the human family to its holiness and destiny. “Deliver us from Evil”: that is what the Messiah and his Church are answering.
The Gates of Heaven: Then, in direct counterpoint with the opening of Gates of Hell, Jesus speaks about the opening of the Gates of Heaven. “I give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven”, he says to Peter. As this meditation has progressed, have you noticed how often the concept of openness is mentioned? Peter and the whole Church are made sharers in the authority of Christ, which opens Hell for people to be free, and opens Heaven for People to enter communion with God and with one another.
Locating today’s Mass in the themes of these weeks of year A:
20th Sunday Year A: Universality of the Church (Isaiah 56 on foreigners, Mt. 15 Canaanite woman)
21st Sunday Year A: Authority in the Church (Isaiah 22 on Eliakim, Mt. 16 Thou art Peter)
22nd Sunday Year A: Cross, crux of Gospel (Jeremiah 20 suffers, Mt. 16 Passion Prophecy)
23rd Sunday Year A: Correction in the Church (Ezekiel 33 correct!, Mt 18 Correct & bind)
24th Sunday Year A: Forgiveness in the Church (Sirach 27,28 forgive, Mt. 18 How often?)
25th Sunday Year A: Openness to new people (Isaiah 55, My ways..., Mt. 20 11th hour story)
26th Sunday Year A: Father’s will, true followers (Ezek. 18 conversion, Mt. 21: 2 sons)
27th Sunday Year A: Fruitfulness in the Church (Isaiah 5, vineyard, Mt. 21 vineyard tenants)
28th Sunday Year A: Sacred Banquet Destiny (Isaiah 25 Messianic feast, Mt. 22 Wedding)
29th Sunday Year A: Church in the World (Isaiah 45 Jews & Syrus, Mt. 22 Give to Caesar)
30th Sunday Year A: Love in the Church (Ex 22 Community care, Mt. 22 Love God & Neighbour)
31st Sunday Year A: Do not Go Astray (Malachi 1 on straying; Mt. 23 Pharisees Scribes astray)
32nd Sunday Year A: Wisdom in the Church (Wisd.6 on wisdom; Mt. 25 10 virgins story)
33rd Sunday Year A: Talents, Work for the Lord (Prov. 31 wives’ gifts, Mt. 25 talents story)
34th Sunday Year A: Great Shepherd (Ezek 34 God-shepherd; Mt. 25 Judgement, sheep & goats
Picture of the Church: we shall hear in the coming weeks how the Church Community must be characterised by the Cross (week 22), by clear correction (week 23), by forgiveness (week 24), by hospitality to new people (week 25), by sincerity in doing the Father’s will (week 26), by real fruitfulness (week 27), by a sense of destiny & celebration, wedding-like (week 28), by wisdom between this world and God’s world (week 29), by the primacy of mutual love (week 30), by real equality not hierarchy (week 31). It is well to locate the question of Authority in the Church within this overall picture.
Call no-one your Teacher! In ten weeks’ time we will hear the Gospel that “you only have one Master and you are all brothers”(Mt. 23). Christians may begin their journey, looking for security, with a strong sense of leaders and authorities in the Church. But as they mature in faith, they are lead to understand how God’s Spirit works throughout the community, and quite strongly in the individual as well. The spiritual leaders and teaching authorities are not disposed of completely, but they are seen in a broader context, so that “there will be no need for brother to say to brother, Seek the Lord”: Jeremiah 31, 33-34:
"But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the Lord, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbour and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Liberation or Rebellion? There is a sense in which this implies “doing without authority”, because the authority lies within the whole people. A very similar thing occurs when people are in a destructive mood, kicking over all order and authority. This is called rebellion, and can be very tempting in the maturing process mentioned above. There are choices to be made. As the Christian people, or individuals and groups of individuals, mature in faith, they can be tempted to get rid of all apparent order and authority, or they can live in that Life of the Spirit which acknowledges authority in the Church, but does not pay foolish deference to it with unwarranted servitude, games of political convenience or reverting to rational laziness. Hmm!
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