Dear Sisters, dear brethren in Christ, there are some events so important that we remember where we were when they happened. This Gospel was the occasion of one such event for me. It was the 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time, towards the end of August 1978. I was on a pilgrimage in Lourdes and the previous afternoon the news had broken that a new Pope had been elected in the conclave following the death of Paul VI. It was the short-lived Pope of 33 days, John Paul I, still remembered as the ‘Smiling Pope’. As usual in Lourdes, next day the principal Sunday Mass was celebrated in the underground basilica of St Pius X. This Mass is always a most impressive celebration, attended by vast numbers of faithful from all over the world coming together for the purpose, concelebrated by many hundreds of priests, and presided over usually by a cardinal or bishop. Of course, on this occasion there was no cardinal present owing to the conclave in Rome at which all the cardinals had been present. But when the Gospel was being sung, as soon as the deacon reached our Lord’s words, ‘you are Peter…’ the entire congregation, thousands of them in that vast space, spontaneously erupted into enthusiastic cheering, ‘viva il papa!’, ‘vive le pape’, ‘long live the pope’, or suchlike acclamations, for quite a while before the Gospel could continue. Many of the people must have thought that this Gospel passage had been deliberately chosen in honour of the newly elected John Paul I, but it was not actually so. It was indeed a happy providence that this famous passage from St Matthew should be prescribed for this Sunday when a new pope had just stepped out onto the Vatican balcony less than twenty four hours earlier.
This Gospel passage has long been associated with the office of the papacy. In St Peter’s vast basilica in Rome, around the inside of that mighty dome over the altar, are inscribed in monumentally massive capital letters in Latin the words that we have just hear our Lord utter: ‘Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam.’ – that is: ‘You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.’ Our Lord’s epic words stand as a two thousand year old testimony to the divine origin of the authority wielded by Peter. But we also hear what Christ says a little further on: ‘I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’
What does all this mean for the Church and the pope? It doesn’t mean, for a start, that the Pope is some kind of emperor with absolute power and authority to do and say whatever he feels like. Take the keys that our Lord gives to Peter, for instance. They are symbolic. Of course our Lord didn’t actually give physical keys to him. So what do they stand for?
The first reading today, from the prophet Isaiah, speaks of a man called Shebna who is a steward over the royal household. A steward’s role is not to rule in his own right and name, but in the name of the one who appointed him. The one who appointed Shebna is the king. But for whatever reason, it is clear from this reading that Shebna has been found wanting. He has failed to live up to his duties. Isaiah here proclaims to Shebna that he is to be thrust from his office. His robes of office are instead to be given to a man called Eliakim, who will also now bear the authority previously given to Shebna. Isaiah says that Eliakim will not only now wear the fine robes of the steward, but ‘he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.’
The stewardship exercised in the king’s name therefore means a kind of fatherhood; a spiritual authority not like that of a king, much less like a tyrant, but like that of a father. It is a vital distinction, and it is about to be reinforced in another striking image. For Isaiah goes on to say that God will ‘place on the steward’s shoulder the key of the house of David.’ This sounds strange to us. Why would anyone put a key on somebody’s shoulder? Well, the answer is that in the kingdom of Israel, the key was large enough to be carried on the shoulders of the one who had the authority to use it, like an emblem of his true authority. Isaiah explains that the key gives to the one who wields it power to ‘open and none shall shut, [to] shut and none shall open.’
This explanation is clearly behind our Lord’s words in the Gospel. For He goes on to say that Peter, like Eliakim in the first reading, will have the authority of a steward and will exercise that authority as a father. What do the keys Peter now has actually do? They bind and loose, or to put it another way, they open and close. A key locks and unlocks, and so does Peter’s authority as Christ’s steward. That authority extends to heaven as well. For whatever Peter does on earth in the exercise of his master’s authority, that will be done too in heaven where the master reigns above.
Thinking of Peter’s authority in this way truly helps us to understand what it is and what it is not. It is not the right to do whatever he wants. It seems as though that is how Shebna in the first reading had been abusing his authority and now, as Isaiah sees it, the time of judgement and reckoning is come. This should also remind us that insofar as the pope is the successor of Peter, and is given the role and authority of Peter’s stewardship, he will be judged by the king on just how he has exercised the king’s own authority.
Another word for describing the pope as steward of God’s authority on earth is ‘vicar’. We sometimes refer to the pope as the ‘vicar of Christ’, since each pope exercises authority in place of Peter who was chosen by our Lord Himself to do so.
All later popes, right down to the present pope, Leo XIV, are chosen not by our Lord but by the cardinals. This is why the pope is also called ‘vicar of Peter’, since each pope exercises Peter’s authority from the time of his election. From that moment the pope has the authority of Peter. He takes the place of our Lord not as God and redeemer, but as ruler and teacher of the Church in our Lord’s name. He does not have power to make the truth but only to teach it in its fullness as Peter did, according to Christ’s own teaching. This is why we call the pope a ‘vicar’. For a ‘vicar’ is by definition one who exercises not his own authority, but only in the name and place of one who does have authority in his own right – in this case, Christ.
So, to sum up, the pope exercises a fatherly role in place of, and only by the authority of, Christ Himself. Hence we call him the ‘Holy Father’. He has no authority of his own whereby he can do or teach as he pleases. He will be judged on how well or otherwise he has exercised that authority. He must teach only what Christ teaches, and make it better understood to all Christians now. So, for instance, he can take the teaching of Christ in the Gospels and apply it to circumstances not pertaining to Christ’s time. He has to discern, always with the help of his fellow apostles, the other bishops, what Christ’s teaching means in modern conditions. This is what happens, for instance, when the bishops meet together as a body to discuss the teaching of Christ in the Church of today, just as they did some sixty or so years ago in the Second Vatican Council. When our Lord made him the rock of faith, Peter was simply given the position of first among equals, not king or emperor over them.
Pope John Paul I chose to show that he was not an emperor by refusing to be crowned at the beginning of his pontificate, as popes had been for many centuries. Instead he continued to wear exactly the same headgear as the other bishops at all times: the mitre. And all popes since him have done the same, to show their role as one among the bishops, not as one over them all.
We pray, therefore, for Pope Leo as the current successor of St Peter, that he may exercise his fatherly role with humility and paternal care for the Church together with all the other bishops who are his equals as successors of the Apostles, and that he may teach, govern and sanctify the Church as Christ wills and directs him and the other bishops, exercising the power of the keys of the kingdom to bind and to loose.
We should also remember to pray for past popes, particularly if they may not seem to have exercised the authority entrusted to them in a truly fatherly way. May they not be treated by the King and heavenly judge as was Shebna, who was ‘pulled down from his station’, but instead may they have the opportunity to atone, just as Peter himself was given the grace to repent and atone for his sin of weakness in denying Christ.
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