Peter, the Rock and the Pope

 “Who do you say that I am?” How do we know the right doctrine about Jesus? How do we know what God says about this or that? This is today’s topic and I want to show the crucial role of the pope in God’s plan.

1. What do you think God says about…(“x”)? Is that a human idea? Of course: if it wasn’t, you could not think it. So, even if it is what God says, if you can think of it, then it is an idea proportionate to your mind, something you can think of and at least partially understand.

Now, can this idea come from your own mind? It could, in the following sense: a human idea is something you can come up with, because it is proportionate to your mind. In the same way you can think of it, you can also come up with it.

Could this idea come from an angel? Of course. If an angel, who is a superior mind, can think angelic ideas, much more can he think human ideas and come up with them. If he can think the more difficult, he can also think the less difficult. Thus, human ideas can also come from angels, good or bad. This is how the devil deceives human beings: by speaking or suggesting false things and so producing deceptive human ideas.

Could a human idea come from God Himself? Of course. If God knows everything, and if He is more intelligent than angels and human beings, then He also knows what we know. If God wants to communicate His plan of salvation to us, He will do it in a way we can understand, that is, He will speak humanly to produce humanly understandably ideas.

2. So, how do you know if a human idea came from God or from someone else? God does not speak directly to all of us. Some people think that God speaks to them, because they hear interior voices, but those voices could also come from the devil or from their own minds. So, how do we know that God is speaking through a person, how do we know that someone actually has God’s message?

First, we need an unmistakable sign that God has spoken: we need a miracle, something only God can do. This is the reason all true prophets and the Son of God have performed signs and wonders: in this way, they showed that God was with them. This is also the reason false prophets need fake or diabolic “miracles.” A long story short, Jesus’ wondrous resurrection is a sign that He was right and all He said was true.

But then, God does not speak His message directly to each human being. Why? There are several reasons for this, but one of them has to do with God’s intention of creating a human family, a Church. Think about this: God does not give life directly to all human beings: He created only Adam and Eve, and we receive life through our parents. In a similar way, we do not receive God’s message directly from God: we receive it from Jesus and from the Apostles down through the centuries. God’s message is transmitted down the centuries through human beings, and God wants us to listen to those human beings and accept their message: “Whoever listens to you listens to Me” (Luke 10:16); “If they kept my word, they will also keep yours” (John 15:20).

3. Now, human beings are weak: how can we be sure that they will maintain firmly the confession of faith? Human beings can deceive and be deceived; how can we be sure that the true message is kept in their mouth? God had to make a human being’s confession perfectly true and strong like a rock. This is why He gave Peter to His Church.

First, Peter neither comes up with the message nor receives it from humans or devils: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.” Second, Peter’s confession receives from God the strength of a rock: “And I tell you, you are Peter [which means something like “rocky”], and on this rock [the rock of your confession] I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” Nothing, not even the power of the devil, will ever be able to destroy this rock. God’s house is not built upon the sand of human opinion and human weakness, but upon the rock of divine strength: no spirit (which is like the wind) and no human persecution (which is like a flood) will ever prevail against God’s house, which is the Church (cf. Matthew 7:24-27). This is because the confession of Peter will always be solid like a rock, by God’s grace. In fact, Jesus said to Peter: “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32).

4. This last text is very important, and I will finish by explaining three things about it. First, Peter’s confession will never fail in the Church because Jesus has prayed precisely for that: “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” Second, the prayer of Jesus does not mean that Peter or the pope will not be weak and sometimes even sin; in fact, in this text there is a delicate but clear reference to Peter’s denials, when Jesus says, “And when you have turned again,” that is, when you come back from your denials, “strengthen your brothers.” Peter may fail and be weak, but his confession of faith will never fail and will always be strong like a rock: this is why Jesus says to him (and this is the third thing), “strengthen your brothers.” “Because I have prayed for your faith to be strong, your task will be to support your brothers with the strength of your faith. The brothers and sisters who will be built upon the rock of your confession, will be stronger than the powers of hell and be called my Church. Those instead who will build upon the sand of human opinions or angelic deceptions will not stand and great will be their fall.” This is why God gave us a pope: because He didn’t want us to be deceived about the message of salvation that He came to preach.

Could the pope ever be ambiguous? Yes, he could (cf. Galatians 2:11 ff). Could the pope sin? Yes, he could. But when he teaches clearly, officially and with an intention of defining the Church’s position, he will never teach something wrong about our faith.

If we do not cling to the official teachings of the Church, we build our house on sand, not on rock. Let us belong to God’s house and be safe from the wind and the storms of time.