Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - The Correct Answer

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | Aug 8th, 2021 | Aux. Bishop R. Barron

[MurphsLaw]

EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

MATTHEW 16:13-23

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus asks his disciples that devastating question: “But who do you say that I am?” But the disciples don’t speak. Are they afraid? Perhaps. Finally, Simon Peter speaks: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” You are the Mashiach, the “anointed one,” the long-awaited Savior; but more to it, you are the Son of God, not just a human hero. This is the mystical faith that stands at the heart of Christianity. To hold this Petrine faith is to be a Christian; to deny it is to deny Christianity.

And then those amazing words of Jesus: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.” This insight did not come from Simon’s own intelligent speculation. It came from above, through grace, from God. And this is why Peter is a rock.

The Church is built not on a worldly foundation of any kind but on a mystical foundation, born of Peter’s faith in the revealing God. The Church is neither democratic nor aristocratic—it is charismatic. And this is where its power comes from.

[MurphsLaw]

+++Simon Peter said in reply,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of
Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my
heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven.”+++