Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 22:19-23; Psalms 138:1-8; Romans 11:33-36; Matthew 16:13-20

Binding and loosing. If the Easter story is any indication, our Parent seems most interested in the latter activity. And if the nightly news, or the morning newspaper, or social media, or a history book are any indication, we have chosen the former. Is it really God whose judgments are inscrutable and whose ways are unsearchable? There is no need to worry about the Divine One forsaking the work of their hands. It is their children running amok that should concern us.

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 16: 13-20

When Jesus gave "the keys to the kingdom of heaven" to Peter, was he giving the Church the power and authority of God? Or was he perhaps inviting us to share in the mind and love of God? When he declared that whatever Peter bound and loosed on earth would also be bound and loosed in heaven, was he giving the Church the power and authority over our eternal destination? Or was he perhaps inviting us to assume the responsibility of seeing, judging, and loving one another as God does? Whose desires does our Church reflect: ours or God's? Whose needs does our Church serve: ours or God's? Do we truly embody the love and mercy of the Father who sacrificed his only Son on our behalf? Or are we the greedy little child who is given the key to the candy store and gorges himself until he is sick? Do we plead the case of each and every one of our brothers and sisters before the Divine Judge? Or are we the spoiled brat who is given the job of doorkeeper to the party and delights in keeping more people out than he lets in?