Today’s feast refers to Peter’s chair as the teaching chair of a professor or the presiding chair of a bishop. It is the chair of authority regarding teaching and doctrine. The importance of Peter’s teaching of faith comes from today’s Gospel. He is the first to fully comprehend who Jesus really is in his own life and the life of us all.
There were a variety of opinions about who Jesus was. Even among the first apostles there was initially a diversity of opinions. In today’s Gospel Jesus is very direct, very personal. The question, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”, demands an immediate and personal answer. The people of Israel had been waiting for generations for the coming of the Son of Man, the Savior, the Messiah, the new David, the Suffering Servant. Just the diversity of titles shows the diversity of opinions about what the messiah was to do and who he would be. The apostles’ answers are general and vague, — made in safe, undisturbing, unchallenging terms. Oh, the Son of Man, that was the recent John the Baptist or one of the ancient prophets. All holy and wise, but dead and gone. All of fond memory. Their hope and the hope of their ancestors was past and gone. Any intervention of God in their lives had happened in long ago history. They could not see the immediate intervention of God in their own daily lives.
Faced with their lack of understanding and even witness, Jesus pushes the question and makes it even more direct: “But who do you say that I am?” This is no longer a general, historical question. It is very personal and demands an answer. Peter is the only one at that moment who responds with personal faith. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This dialog continues every day of our lives. Christ constantly present in our lives and calling us to proclaim our faith.
That question in all its forms – Who is the Son of Man? Who is the Savior? Who do you say that Jesus is? – comes to us not only as a personal challenge but also it is directed to us from our children, teenagers, and young adults. As parents, as grandparents, as a family, as a local faith community we need to proclaim our faith openly in our lifestyle for all to see and hear. The general, vague, safe responses no longer hold any value as forms of witness. We need to follow the example of the words and life of Peter.
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Image: https://www.olschurch.us/blog/from-father-jeremy/lent-encountering-the-infinite-god