21ST SUNDAY HOMILY/SERMON OF ORDINARY TIME — YEAR A
21ST SUNDAY HOMILY/SERMON OF ORDINARY TIME — YEAR A
HOMILY THEME: “You are the Christ…the Son of the living God.”
BY: Bishop Anthony Ewherido
Is. 22: 19-23; Rom. 11: 33-36; Matt 16: 13-20
The unfathomable glory, wisdom, knowledge, and power of God reside in Jesus, in whom Isaiah’s prophecy in today’s first reading is fulfilled. Christ is the one who received the authority of the keys of the house of David, with the power to open and close definitively. He opened the gates of life for us that no one can close. He shut the gates of hell forever for God’s children. Christ entrusted the same power to the Church through the apostles, so that for all time, the gates to life may remain open to God’s people. Peter’s confession is our confession and the blessing bestowed upon him is also ours. As such every disciple’s life becomes a response to Jesus’ question: “who do you say that I am?” Every word, thought and action responds to that question, by either affirming the fact that Jesus is the Christ or by negating it. Christ’s church, built on the foundation of the apostles, with Peter as head, must always respond to that question in her confession, liturgy, practice and way of life as a community of disciples. The authenticity of these responses and confessions unites heaven and earth around God’s will.
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Today’s gospel remains one of the biblical foundations for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. That is one of the primary media for the Church’s exercise of the power to bind and loose. There, through the instrumentality of the priest and the ministry of the Church, God unleashes his power over sin and death at every sacramental encounters. There, God’s mercy and forgiveness are made available to the penitent, who faithfully receives the words “through the ministry of the Church, may God grant you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins…”
Father, may our lives affirm our confession of the Christ. Amen.
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