Upon This Rock: Peter, the Papacy, and the Church
Readings and Virtual Homily for August 23, 2026, Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time; Two Weeks in at O'Dowd; August in Hayward
Readings for Mass this Sunday:
Isaiah 22:19-23
Psalm 138:1-3, 6, 8
Romans 11:33-36
Matthew 16:13-20
Dear Friends and Family,
The Gospel passage today is the famous "proof text" from Matthew that Jesus did, in fact, intend to found a unified community of believers, summed up in the word "church." What is more, this community would have a structure; even a command structure. It would be hierarchical in organization, for Jesus declares to Peter in today's passage that he will become the leader of the Christian community. "Thou art rock," the Lord actually says to Peter, "and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it" (vs. 18).
I have often enough seen this passage used to score debater's points in exercises in apologetics. That is, the speaker or podcaster or writer, wanting to prove the Catholic Church's claim to being THE Church (a claim I am not about to argue with) uses this passage to browbeat Protestant, or maybe even Orthodox, Christians, the argument usually proceeding along the lines of, "I can give you the date and place of the founding of every other Christian denomination. THIS is the founding of the Catholic Church."
And as I say, I am in no way inclined to argue. I am personally uninclined toward the "Fight Club Catholicism" approach, but Jesus did found the original Christian community on Peter, and through his 266 successors, the unity of that community has held firm to this day. A few considerations.
One, the Second Vatican Council declared that all Christian believers share a real degree of unity by virtue of our common baptism. Though the fullness of the faith resides uniquely in the Catholic Church, many aspects of our faith are richly represented among our Protestant brothers and sisters, and as for the Orthodox, well, they are separated from us above all by a jurisdictional dispute. That dispute, though, gets at the heart of today's Gospel passage. Jesus did not include other disciples in his commissioning of Peter. He created an organization with one leader. The Pope is not merely the Patriarch of the West, nor may he be called "first among equals." He has no equal.
Two, the very fact of what we sometimes refer to as "separated brethren," the very fact of the existence of ecclesial bodies beyond the boundaries of the Catholic Church, is evidence that, indeed, "the gates of the netherworld" have been at war with (and within) Jesus' Church, and from the beginning. The unity among his followers Jesus prayed for the night before he died (see the Gospel of John, chapter 17) has been fractured, not just by various schisms and heresies but by corruption within the Church itself, which is largely responsible for the ecclesiological earthquake we call the Reformation.
The gates of hell have, indeed, made war on the Church. But they have not prevailed. Although the histories of these splits are messy, to put it mildly, all three major branches of the Christian faith today are united in ways that believers were not, during (as just one example) the two-century long period of the Arian heresy (circa 300-500 AD). Arians denied the divinity of Christ. This was a far greater disagreement than anything which currently divides Catholics from Protestants, let alone Catholics from Orthodox Christians.
Moreover, many denominations in our time have recognized the deep value of ecumenical dialogue. The Catholic-Lutheran effort has been particularly fruitful. And I have long been aware of a certain cross-pollination taking place, among the churches. As just one example, highly relevant to today's Gospel passage, the very question of the apostolic succession has become a matter of real interest to leaders in several mainline Protestant congregations.
Three, and related to the question of the apostolic succession, today's passage underscores the organic nature of the Church's hierarchical structure. We see the hierarchical development of the early Christian community coming into focus, coming into being, in various passages from Acts of the Apostles. Chapter six details the creation of the office of deacon. (I might point out, while I am here, that the Letter to the Romans mentions the office of deaconess; a position of leadership for women in the Church that was still in existence at the time of the Council of Chalcedon in the mid-fifth century.) Later chapters in Acts describe the commissioning of presbyters (literally translated as elders). In these commissionings we begin to see the delineation of the offices of priest and bishop.
So from the start, the Church was hierarchical in its governing arrangements. In my view, we have the hierarchy to thank for our continued unity over the span of twenty centuries. I like to use the skeleton analogy. I like it for a number of reasons, but among them the fact that Paul repeatedly referred to the Church as a body. Well, what is a body without a skeleton? An amorphous mass of organs, blood vessels, muscles and tissues...The organizing structure, the framework that literally holds the rest of the body together, is the skeleton. The hierarchy may be thought of as the Church's skeletal structure.
But skeletons are not meant to act alone. That's the stuff of horror movies. A hierarchical focus on protecting the institution at all cost gave us the sex scandals of the past half century. There are plenty of other examples of "the skeleton acting alone" in our history -- it is not how the body is designed to function.
But without the skeleton the body fails to function as a body at all. That is how we have, in the twenty-first century, literally tens of thousands of Christian denominations. Jesus, knowing human nature, created a Church with a head. And the Spirit, as we see in Acts of the Apostles and elsewhere in the New Testament, created a community with an enduring organizational structure; created a body with a skeleton.
I might continue with a reflection on the extraordinary authority granted to Peter and his successors ("What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven," vs. 19). But this is already long enough. I'll only comment that, with rare exceptions in our history, the skull does not operate independently of the rest of the skeleton. Councils of the Church have been numerous, down through the centuries. Councils are composed of the bishops of the Church. Though unique in his authority, the successor to Peter, like Peter himself (see Acts of the Apostles, chapter 15, the Council of Jerusalem) typically acts in consultation with the bishops, and beyond, with theologians, historians and other leaders within the body.
That acknowledged, I need to end this set of considerations by once again underscoring that the authority of the papacy is unique, without parallel anywhere in the Church. That uniqueness is a key takeaway from today's Gospel passage.
Well, we are two weeks in now, on the autumn semester at O'Dowd. I am, as I mentioned last week, enchanted with my sophomores -- every three years or so I encounter a class with whom I have a truly deep resonance. 2019. 2022. 2025. 2027. And now, the class of 2029 -- maybe an over-the-top special resonance; we are only at the end of the second week and already the connection feels more like what I am used to experiencing at ten weeks, at twelve.
My students' trust seems to have existed before they first stepped into my class. They appear to have been predisposed to like me and predisposed to believe that this semester's religion course will be an enjoyable experience in learning. The boys were giving me fist-bumps on the second day, and the girls, though largely uninclined toward that particular gesture of affirmation, have been no less enthusiastic. As I said last week, the semester is off to a very good start; I think it is going to be a great term.
Finally, Hayward in August...Never mind that we are back on campus at the high school, it is just past the middle of August, high summer. And a time of year I especially love here in Hayward. The hills above the parish are typical summer-gold; we have our mini-herd of cattle populating the slopes, including several rambunctious calves. In the evenings, as the sun sets and the sky turns that dusky summer twilight blue, it can be an active experience in lowering one's blood pressure, just to sit and admire the hills for any amount of time, whether two minutes or twenty.
I also love Hayward's bay breezes late afternoon and into the evening. I am typically saying my evening Rosary when the breezes are flowing. I think of Genesis 3:8, and of God, walking with Adam and Eve in the garden in "the breezy time of the day." I am very fortunate, deeply blessed in my long residence at St. Clement. This is now my twelfth year in Hayward, and of course the only reason for my being so long in residence is the assignment to the high school. I can live anywhere in the diocese (the pastor permitting). I chose Hayward in 2015 for a variety of reasons, and let Mother Mary choose the parish. She never misses!
Gonna close it here.
Hope August is as bright and sunny for you as it is proving to be for me. Take care. God bless.
El Padre