In his Homily for the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter on February 22, Rev. Fr. Elvis Mensah shed more light on the day’s Gospel reading known as Peter’s declaration about Jesus (Matthew 16:13-19).
Following the declaration, Jesus said to the Apostle, “And I say to you, that you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound, even in heaven. And whatever you shall release on earth shall be released even in heaven.”
In three points, Fr. Mensah noted that the Church is built by the Lord, who does this by using human beings. He then urged Christians to come together as one, and help in establishing the Kingdom of God on earth.
He also went on to emphasize the fact that no power can destroy God’s church. “People can do whatever they want to do against the Church including Roman Catholics, yet the Church will still stand. The Church is for Jesus. To destroy the Church is to destroy Jesus which is impossible”, the Priest in-charge of the St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, Weija, said.
In his final point, Fr. Mensah stressed, that, a key is a symbol of power or authority, and by handing over the keys of the kingdom of God over to Apostle Peter, by Jesus, this makes him the head of the Church. He noted that Peter as the rock, is the foundation of today’s feast, “the keys weren’t given to Judas, James or John, but Peter.
The Chair of Peter has nothing to do with the ‘ordinary’ chair that Peter sat upon”, adding that it is by this term that we refer to the Office of the Apostle as the first Pope of the Catholic Church.
It is in this way that all Popes have become Peter’s successors. “This unity has never been broken, and that is why the Church is able to trace all her Pope from St. Peter (the first Pope) to Pope Francis the current Pope”, the priest said.
Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter:
In 1960, Pope John XXIII deleted the January 18 feast from the General Roman Calendar, along with seven other feast days that were deemed duplicate feasts of a single saint or mystery. The February 22 celebration then became a Second-Class Feast. In 1962, this calendar was incorporated in the Roman Missal of Pope John XXIII, whose continued use Pope Benedict XVI authorized under the conditions indicated in his motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. However, traditionalist Catholics who use older calendars continue to celebrate both feast days, which are: Saint Peter’s Chair at Rome on January 18, and the Chair of Saint Peter at Antioch on February 22.
In the new classification of holy days introduced in the year 1969, the February 22 celebration has the rank of Feast.