"The beautiful is a phenomenon which is never apparent of itself, but is reflected in a thousand different works of the creator." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I got back late last night. I flew to Dalian from Chengdu in the morning (had a meeting) and then took the speed train to Jilin City last night.
Jingmei stopped by to say hello early this morning.
It felt great to take a walk on the Jilin Riverwalk this morning. Lots of rain the past few days here, which is pretty normal for Jilin City. The water level in the river is a little high and everything is so green!
The riverwalk at around 3:30 this morning.
I had my steps in before 5:30.
Today is the 111th anniversary of the establishment of Maryknoll.
Today's Gospel and some comments:
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ Matthew 16: 13-19
When Jesus asked the disciples who the people believed he was, they gave him a list of dead men: “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” All dead. Peter alone mentioned life: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” A 5th century writer commented: “Having said that Peter’s confession is a rock, Jesus stated, ‘Upon this rock I will build my Church.’ This means he will build his Church upon this same confession and faith.”
This is the “key to the Kingdom of heaven.” In ancient times a key was a hefty piece of equipment: in Isaiah there is reference to placing a key on a man’s shoulder. But keys are now tiny things/cards if you will. The key to the Kingdom is a small thing. It is to see Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” He himself said to the Sadducees on one occasion: “[God] is God not of the dead, but of the living”.
Jesus is alive, but there are many who have an interest in keeping him dead: then he is controllable, predictable, even sellable. But he is not dead. The key is to see that he is everywhere: he is looking out of the eyes of the stranger and the sinner and the outsider. But even this key can be turned into an instrument of exclusion and control. It is meant to be the opposite: it is for opening.
John Chrysostom (4th-5th century): “He did not ask ‘Who do the scribes and Pharisees say that I am?’ even though they had often come to talk with him. Rather, he asked, ‘Who do people say the Son of man is?’ as if to inquire about common opinion. Even if the common opinion was far less true than it might have been, it was at least freer of malice than the opinion of the religious leaders, who were reeking of bad motives.” The latter, and their successors throughout the ages, would like to see his tomb sealed, the heavy stone securely in place for all time.
Let’s not say ‘they’; let’s say ‘we’. The Gospel is always about us, not about them; Jesus spoke in the second person; he was not a social commentator or a journalist. The heavy stone represents the past; we live too much under its weight; we interpret the present not as something new but as something old. But there are moments when the stone moves aside, even if only a fraction of an inch, and we glimpse the living Christ, as Peter did. In such moments our faith is in living continuity with his.
