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| Sunday 24th August, 2008 - 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
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St Bartholomew. Isaiah 22:19-23. Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands—Ps 137(138):1-3, 6, 8. Romans 11:33-36. Matthew 16:13-20. Link to Readings
We can distinguish three moments in Our Lord’s appointing a vicar for himself on earth.
At Philippi, when Peter makes his confession of faith, Jesus does two things: he commends Peter for accepting faith in something ‘flesh and blood’ could never come to know; then he makes Peter the Rock on which he will build his church.
At the time of the Passion, Jesus warns Peter of his approaching denial. But he adds, ‘When you have come back, strengthen your brethren’. The college of apostles will be dependent on Peter. So, too, Vatican II teaches, ‘The college or corporate body of the bishops does not enjoy authority unless it is conceived of simultaneously together with Peter’s successor, as its head’.
Finally, after the resurrection, Our Lord, having three times drawn from Peter a protestation of love, installs him in the pastoral office with the words, ‘Feed my lambs, feed my sheep’.
It is in the context of a revelation by the Father that Our Lord makes Peter the foundation rock of his church; it is in a context of human weakness sustained by the prayer of Christ that Our Lord makes Peter the president of the apostolic college; it is in a context of love that Our Lord installs Peter in the pastoral office. The teaching authority within the church, therefore, is to be an expression first of the love of Christ and then of his flock.
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| Ss Cyril and Methodius
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Centuries before Mass in the local language was normal throughout the Catholic world, Churches in Slavonic lands were celebrating the liturgy in a version of their own language. They looked back to two brothers, Cyril and Methodius (9th century), who had devised a written language, later called Cyrillic, for them and translated the liturgy and the Bible into it. Sent to Slavic lands as missionaries by the emperor, they met opposition from German priests and bishops, who treated them as interlopers. The pope befriended them, inviting them to Rome, where their vernacular liturgy was celebrated in St Peter’s basilica. After Cyril’s death in Rome, me4thodius went back to the Slavs, carrying the pope’s authorisation of his mission. Despite this, and the fact that he was now an archbishop, he still met opposition, being imprisoned for two years. Restored by the pope to his see, he won further papal approval of his vernacular liturgy.
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