Yesterday was the feast of the Chair of St Peter. Cardinal Sean O'Malley from Boston gave an excellent homily on the feast which is well worth listening to in its entirety.
Quote of the piece " Peter denied Christ...not to a soldier with a knife but a waitress with an attitude".
A reminder if needed that it is not to Peter the man (or his successors) to whom we owe blind allegience but rather to the Master who forgave him and gave him the role to "feed my sheep".
He also gives us an English translation of the audience talk B16 gave on this day in 2006, the
first 22 February after his election as the 265th pontiff.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
The
Latin liturgy celebrates today the feast of the Chair of St. Peter. It comes
from a very ancient tradition, chronicled at Rome from the end of the 4th
century, which renders thanks to God for the mission entrusted to the Apostle
Peter and to his successors. The "cathedra," literally, is the fixed seat of the
Bishop, found in the mother church in a diocese, which for this reason is called
"cathedral," and is the symbol of the authority of the Bishop and, in
particular, of his "magisterium," the evangelical teaching which he, as a
successor of the Apostles, is called to maintain and pass on to the Christian
community. When the Bishop takes possession of the particular Church entrusted
to him, he, wearing the mitre and carrying the pastoral staff, is seated in the
cathedra. From that seat he will guide, as teacher and pastor, the path of the
faithful in faith, in hope and in love.
What was, then, the "cathedra" of
St. Peter? Chosen by Christ as the "rock" on which the Church was built, he
began his ministry in Jerusalem, after the Ascension of the Lord and Pentecost.
The first "see" of the Church was the Cenacle, and it's likely that in that
room, where also Mary, the mother of Jesus, prayed together with the disciples,
a special place was reserved for Simon Peter. Successively, the see of Peter
became Antioch, a city situated on the Oronte River, in Syria, today in Turkey,
in that time the third metropolis of the Roman empire after Rome and Alexandria
in Egypt. From that city, evangalized by Barnabas and Paul, where "for the first
time the disciples were called Christians" (Acts 11:26), where the name
Christian was born for us, Peter was the first bishop, so that the Roman
Martyrology, before the reform of the calendar, also provided for a specific
celebration of the Chair of Peter at Antioch. From there, Providence brought
Peter to Rome. Therefore we have the road from Jerusalem, the newborn Church, to
Antioch, the first center of the Church recounted by the Pagans and still united
with the Church which proceeded from the Jews. Then Peter came to Rome, center
of the Empire, symbol of the "Orbis" -- the "Urbs" [city] which expresses the
"Orbis" [world] of the earth -- where he concluded with his martyrdom his course
in the service of the Gospel. For this, the see of Rome, which received the
greatest honor, is also accorded the honors entrusted by Christ to Peter to be
at the service of all the particular Churches for the building up and the unity
of the entire People of God.
The see of Rome, after this movement of St.
Peter, became recognized as that of the successor of Peter, and the "cathedra"
of its bishop represented that of the Apostle charged by Christ to feed his
flock. This is attested to by the most ancient Fathers of the Church, for
example St. Iraneus, bishop of Lyon, but living in Asia Minor, who in his
treatise Against heresies described the Church of Rome as "the greatest and most
ancient, known of all;... founded and built at Rome by the two most glorious
apostles Peter and Paul"; and then: "With this Church, for its outstanding
superiority, must be accorded to it the Church universal, the faithful in every
place" (III, 3, 2-3). Tertullian, a little later, for his part, affirms: "How
blessed is this Church of Rome! For it the apostles poured out, with their
blood, the whole of doctrine." The chair of the Bishop of Rome represents,
therefore, not only its service to the Roman community, but its mission of
watching over the entire People of God.
To celebrate the "Cathedra" of
Peter, as we do today, means, then, to attribute to it a strong spiritual
significance and to recognize it as a privileged sign of the love of God, the
good and eternal Shepherd, who wishes to gather the entire Church and guide it
along the way of salvation. Among the many testimonies of the Fathers, I'd like
to report that of St. Jerome, who wrote in a letter of his to the Bishop of
Rome, is particularly interesting because it makes an explicit reference to the
"chair" of Peter, presented it as the sure grounding of truth and of peace. As
Jerome wrote: "I decided to consult the chair of Peter, where is found that
faith which the mouth of an Apostle exalted; I come then to ask nourishment for
my soul, where once was received the garment of Christ. I don't follow a primate
other than Christ; for this reason, I place myself in communion with your
blessedness, that is, with the chair of Peter. I know that on this rock is built
the Church" (Letters I, 15, 1-2).
Dear Brothers and Sisters, in the apse
of St. Peter's Basilica, as you know, can be found the monument to the Chair of
the Apostle, Bernini's eldest work, realized in the form of a great bronze
throne, held up by statues of four Doctors of the Church, two of the west, St.
Augustine and St. Ambrose, two of the east, St. John Chrysostom and St.
Athanasius. I invite you to stand in front of this suggested work, which today
is probably decorated admirably by many candles, and pray in a particular way
for the ministry which God has entrusted to me. Raising our gaze to the
alabaster window which opens over the Chair, invoking the Holy Spirit, may he
always sustain with his light and strength my daily service to all the Church.
_-_James_Tissot_-_overall.jpg)
