A Jesuit Catholic University
in Omaha, Nebraska, since 1878

[535] 1 Pet 5:1-4 Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6 Matt 16:13-19

Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer The Daily Reflections

Today we celebrate humanity. Technically we are celebrating the “Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter” and the fact that it was upon Peter that the Catholic Church was established. But who is more human than Peter? In today’s gospel, Peter is lauded for his trust in Jesus and his belief that he is the Messiah. What we are missing is that only about 4 verses later, Peter boldly claims that he would never deny Jesus and Jesus calls him “Satan”. Take a moment to think about what Peter’s personality would be like: He is one of Jesus’ best friends, but he falls asleep in the Garden, cuts off a soldier’s ear, and even denies him three times when Jesus is most in need. But, Peter is also someone who sought forgiveness, and through these faults he labored to build the Kingdom of God in Rome, was crucified, and started a church based on the mission of love.

To me, Peter is someone very human. He is faulted and screws up a lot, but is really someone dedicated to the mission of building love and did something spectacular with it. I feel a little better knowing that our church is built upon this man. Our Church built by this man is not a perfect and completely infallible institution, but rather it is something more relatable. Our mission for us is not to be perfect; our mission is to be like Peter: faulted, human, and defined by the goal of better learning to love. I think this is what Peter meant when he said our job is to tend to the flock by being an example. We are supposed to make mistakes. We are supposed to mess up. We are supposed to be human. But we are also supposed to radically love.

Today I hope that we all can celebrate our humanity. Through our mistakes and our triumphs we have created something good: a community striving to love. The question just becomes, how are you going to be part of that community today? How  are you, as wonderfully  imperfect as you are, going to live out this greater mission of love?