Fr. Ben’s homily for Tuesday of the 7th Week in Ordinary Time Cycle II (1)

Fr. Ben’s homily for Tuesday of the 7th Week in Ordinary Time Cycle II

Theme: ON THIS ROCK, I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH!

By: Ben Agbo (Rev Fr)

Homily for Tuesday February 22 2022

*1 Pet 5:1-4, Matt 16:13-19

Ecclesiology is the study of the theological origin, constitution and organization of the Church under the spiritual leadership of Christ and the human leadership of Peter as the 1st Pope, together with his successors. In today’s gospel pericope, we see that Peter impressed Christ by a quantum leap of theological grasp on the divinity of Christ (Christology), at a time when the pagan worldview was permeated by reincarnation theories and the practice of ancestral worship.
When Peter said: ‘You are Christ the Son of the living God’, Jesus replied: ‘You are a blessed man because no human agency revealed this to you’. A biblical exegesis on this passage must see some elements of theological infallibility conferred on the Church leadership (‘On this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall never prevail against it’ ) and the power of the keys ( ‘Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven’ ). This special conferment of grace on the Church leadership was to be for eternity ( ‘I will be with you till the end of time’).

Any serious Protestant argument on this passage will either deny the meaning of this passage literally or argue for historical degeneration of the seat of the papacy. The latter argument implies that the gates of hell has prevailed against the Church leadership, ie, that they have gone astray over time and no longer enjoys the ‘power of the keys’. But this is not fidelity to scriptural revelation no matter how anybody looks at it.

Today’s 1st reading presents a caveat. Church leaders (elders) are warned to be careful to give a Shepherd’s care to the flock assigned to them. The gates of hell (enemies of the house of God) has continued to strike terror but shall not prevail. Their weapons of attack has been through the following; humanism, liberalism, materialism, corruption, immorality, excess dogmatism, pastoral dictatorship, etc. We must watch over the flock of Christ with exemplary humility and detachment – not for sordid money. When we see these negative signs among the leadership, we cannot but pray in trepidation. But we’ll continue to believe in Christ’s words: ‘On this rock I will build my Church’. May God bless you today!