13 When Jesus reached the remote region of Caesarea Philippi, he began to ask his disciples, "What do people think of the new Adam? 14 Then the disciples answered him, "To some he is a John the Baptist, but to others he is a new Elijah, or a Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15 Jesus answered them, "But you, who am I for you?" 16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." 17 Then Jesus said to him, "Bravo, Simon, son of Jonah, for it is not your human nature that has given you this insight, but my Father in heaven. 18 And I add that you are Peter, and on this rock I will found the community of believers, and no force of death will prevail over it. 19 I will give you a key role in entering the kingdom of God, more precisely a mediating role, which will allow people to enter or not to enter.

A few years ago, a well-known journalist from a major newspaper published an article entitled: Letter to God. This article followed her coverage of the war in Syria. She expressed her anger with the question addressed to God: "How could you watch humanity collapse in Aleppo and remain idle?" She recalls that in the small catechism of the past, she learned that God is infinitely good. "I don't believe it for a moment. If you were good, you could not let Syria sink into madness without lifting a finger." Then follows a list of horrors, each more repulsive than the other. And the letter ends with this: "God, I would like to implore your mercy so that you put an end to this war and to the suffering of the Syrian people, but I no longer believe in you."

Faced with such a letter, a well-meaning believer might say: but this war comes from human freedom. This does not change the problem: what does it mean to say that God is all-powerful and infinitely good when he never seems to intervene, out of respect for human freedom? But there is more. Why did he create a world where inevitable accidents are possible? Why did he create an earth with tectonic plates that cause tremors and tsunamis, and pave the way for volcanoes? Why did he deploy the tremendous energy that inhabits the animal world and create the world of the jungle, where the strongest eat the weakest? Why did he create a world of living beings so fragile that a genetic error in the transmission of life can create monsters? Two answers are possible: God has nothing to do with it, because he doesn't exist. Or, we recognize that we are confronted with a mystery.

It is important to recognize this mystery in order to understand today's gospel. At first glance, it looks like a beautiful text, usually called Peter's confession. In fact, the evangelist puts in the mouth of Jesus this question addressed to his disciples: "Who am I for you? The aspect "for you" is important, because it is not a theoretical question. When a woman says to her husband, "Who am I to you?" she wants to know what place she occupies in his life, whether it is a secondary or essential place. To emphasize this question, the evangelist preceded it with another question: "Who am I to people on the street? The answer: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets, boils down to this: he is a prophet with a message from God; therefore, for the people he is someone to listen to. But Peter's response is different: "You are the anointed one (the messiah), the son of the living God. Note that the term "anointed" translates the Greek word christos, which is intended to translate the Hebrew word "messiah". What is the meaning of Peter's response in referring to Jesus as "messiah"? It is as if Peter is saying: "You are the savior we have been waiting for, the final answer to all our problems. We are far from the word of wisdom coming from some prophet. To help us understand the significance of Peter's answer in all its depth, Matthew has placed it in a precise context.

First, in the previous scene, the disciples are dismayed that they forgot to take bread for the boat trip. Jesus rebukes them for their lack of faith, reminding them of the two events where he fed a crowd of 5,000 and 4,000 people, and warns them against the Pharisees' teaching based on their unbelief. Then, after Peter's confession, Jesus makes the first announcement of his passion and death. The call to faith and the announcement of suffering are essential to understand the face of the savior, this messiah who is supposed to be the answer to all our problems. But at the same time, it goes against all our expectations and perceptions of what a solution is. That is why Jesus says to Peter: "It is not flesh and blood (human nature) that has revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. We are then confronted with the challenge of faith, i.e. in spite of what "common sense" tells us, we are challenged to accept Jesus' perception of this world, the way he acted, the path he took, the feelings that inhabited him, and all of this we accept as being the way of life and the answer to the mystery of evil. The historical Jesus also had to rely totally on his love for a Father whom he knew to be loving in order to face adversity head on, while he became a helpless victim. In faith, evil remains a mystery; we simply know that it is worth fighting every day and that it will not have the last word. Of course, this is not the solution we would have liked

The follow-up that Jesus gives to Peter's confession can be problematic: "You are Peter, and it is on this rock that I will found the community of believers". Peter, a rock on which to lean? Yet a few verses later, Jesus tells him, when he refuses to consider the sufferings that await Jesus: "You are a stumbling block for me (a scandal). And is it not Peter who will deny knowing Jesus during the difficult moments of the passion? But all this is a reflection of the fragility of our humanity, and the real miracle is that despite this fragility, a community is built that believes in the type of messiah that Jesus is, and finds that the path he took is the true solution to human misery.

There is another problem posed by Jesus' follow-up to Peter's confession: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." That was all it took for the casuists to seize upon these words to build a legal empire over the power of the Church. Yet it was originally good news. Matthew's expression bind/unbind originated in rabbinic circles to express a role in community integration or exclusion. This role is associated with Peter's faith as a guide to the believing community, and thus affirms his leadership in understanding the path Jesus took.

 

-André Gilbert, Gatineau, March 2023

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