Thursday in the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time, August 4, 2022

Matthew 16, 13-23

Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 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.” Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.  From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  The term “the Son of man” might seem innocuous enough to us today, but in order to appreciate the Lord’s question to the Apostles we have to keep in mind that for them the term was momentous.  The Prophets described the Son of man as one having great power: “I beheld, therefore, in the vision of the night, and lo, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and he came even to the ancient of days: and they presented him before him. And he gave him power, and glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him: his power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away: and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7, 13-14).  The Apostles would also have known these words from the Book of Enoch, a popular writing of the time: “There I beheld the Ancient of days, whose head was like white wool, and with him another, whose countenance resembled that of man. His countenance was full of grace, like that of one of the holy angels. Then I inquired of one of the angels, who went with me, and who showed me every secret thing, concerning this Son of man; who he was; whence he was and why he accompanied the Ancient of days. He answered and said to me, This is the Son of man, to whom righteousness belongs; with whom righteousness has dwelt; and who will reveal all the treasures of that which is concealed: for the Lord of spirits has chosen him; and his portion has surpassed all before the Lord of spirits in everlasting uprightness. This Son of man, whom you behold, shall raise up kings and the mighty from their dwelling places, and the powerful from their thrones; shall loosen the bridles of the powerful, and break in pieces the teeth of sinners.”  The fact that Jesus speaks of himself in this way tells us that he knew the Apostles had accepted him to be the Son of man.

And so the Lord asks: “Who do the people say the Son of man is?”  As if to ask, “You know me as the Son of man, and I am truly he; but who do the people say that I am?”  The Apostles have all heard the people talk, and they offer what they have heard from them.  “Some say John the Baptist.”  King Herod was one of those who believed this.  The thought may have been that John the Baptist  had risen from the dead and was continuing his ministry, though now also working great miracles.  “Others, Elijah.”  Elijah had been caught up to heaven in a fiery chariot, and so had not died.  The Prophet Malachi taught that he would return to announce the Messiah (cf. Malachi 4, 5-6).  Elijah had also performed miracles during his ministry, so it is easy to see why people may have thought Jesus was Elijah.  “Still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  Like Jeremiah and the Prophets, the Lord did not have an official position in the Temple, and he went about preaching repentance.  This idea might have been favored by those who had heard him preach but had seen him perform no miracles.

“But who do you say that I am?”  He poses a question and a challenge.  Which of them will speak out that which they all know?  It is Simon son of John, one of the first men to give up everything to follow him.  Simon, who, with his brother Andrew, had spent time with John the Baptist and knew that Jesus was greater than John.  “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  In Hebrew, he would have said, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  That is, “the Anointed One”.  What is great here is not so much the belief — though this is enormous — but the public profession of faith.  And both the faith and the courage to profess it are the effect of Simon’s receptivity to God’s grace.  Simon does here what Abraham had done thousands of years before.  For his faithfulness, God said to Abraham: “I am, and my covenant is with you, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall your name be called any more Abram: but you shall be called Abraham: because I have made you a father of many nations” (Genesis 17, 4-5).  Note that at the head of this quotation, God says, “I am.”  This translates the Hebrew an-ee, which literally means “I”, but when used without a verb, the verb to-be is understood to go with it.  Thus, the Lord God is telling Abraham his name, his identity.  The Lord Jesus will thus declare his divinity to the crowd in Jerusalem: “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am” (John 8, 58).  The Jews knew exactly what he was saying and they attempted to stone him then and there for it.

And so as Almighty God reveals himself to Abram, the Lord Jesus confirms to Simon that “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.”  And just as God changed Abram’s name to a name with a new meaning and identity (“the father of many nations”), so the Lord changes Simon’s name, explaining to him: “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.”  

According to St. Matthew, this event marked a turning point in the Lord’s ministry as he began to prepare his Apostles for his coming Passion and Death — a destiny foreseen in Daniel or Enoch.  But this was before they learned from him that the Son of man was also the Suffering Servant in Isaiah.  Peter, in particular, was hurt by the prospect of his imminent Death: “Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”  The Lord reacted very strongly: “He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”  St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that by this time, the devil understood that the Son of God had come to die for the sins of the world, and so he strove to prevent this.  Thomas says that he tempted Peter to remonstrate with the Lord here, and this is why Jesus, knowing this, says to the devil, hiding behind Peter, as it were, “Get behind me, Satan!”  And then he addresses Peter, “You are an obstacle to me, etc.”  Thomas, later in his commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew, also offers the possibility that Satan had sent the wife of Pontius Pilate a disturbing dream about Jesus and so she begged her husband to “have nothing to do with that just man” (Matthew 27, 19).

We thank God for the faith of Abraham, our Father of faith, and St. Peter, the Rock on which the Son of man has built his Church, and ask, through their prayers, to be strengthened in our faith.