Sunday 21 (A-2005): The Keys of Faith: Mt. 16:18 and following

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, is about to end his pastoral visit to Germany for the World Youth Day. Commentators have already made their judgments about the success of his visit and, indeed, about his person.

However, in making these judgments, they have taken into consideration not only the facts of the trip. A whole series of prejudices, bias and presuppositions has also been part of their judgment process. I refer not only to the negative bias, but also to the positive. For some, the Pope can do no right, for others he can do no wrong. Which side is correct?

Neither! And not just because the truth is usually somewhere in the middle, but also because a full evaluation of the Pope cannot be based on his modernity or antiquity, his openness or closedness to the demands of contemporary society, his political wit or correctness, or his magnetic or dull personality.

The evaluation of the Pope that really counts is based on  faith. The Pope’s motivation is not simply to please, nor to ingratiate himself to public opinion, nor to gain political advantage on the “right” or on the “left” or even in the “center.”

What underlies the Pope’s decisions and actions is above all Peter’s profession of faith and Christ’s conferral upon him of the power of the keys. The papacy stands or falls on the permanence in the Church of Peter’s faith and so of Christ’s entrusting to him of the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. And since neither of these will ever fail, then the papacy will never fail.

It will never fail to be rooted in Peter’s faith in the divinity of Jesus; it will never fail to exercise the power of the keys according to the heart and the mind of Jesus.

This does not mean that the Pope is always and everywhere infallible; nor does it mean that he commits no sin. It means that, come what may, whoever he may be and whatever he may do, Christ will sustain in him the faith of Peter and will exercise through him the power of the keys of the Kingdom.

Some media coverage of Pope Benedict’s visit to Germany has been good, some not so good. But while we may feel legitimate pride or frustration, and rightfully commend or protest that coverage, we must as believers go deeper and root ourselves in the foundations of the truth: the Pope went to Cologne to strengthen the faith of his brethren, especially of his younger brethren.

The eyes of our faith must see the working of faith and not mere pop-star euphoria or thinly-veiled animosity.

By his word and his actions, from lunching with the youth to honoring the victims of the Holocaust, the Pope has used the keys entrusted to him to open a little more many hitherto closed doors and to lock further the doors of error, prejudice and division.

In doing this, he has performed an invaluable service of love and leadership, not just for those gathered in Cologne, but for the whole Church and, indeed, for the whole world.

Whether or not the media grasp this, is, in the end, neither here nor there. What matters is that he has done it in faith, and all men and women of goodwill will see it and rejoice.

Still, on looking around the world, we might sometimes wonder if Christ’s promise that the “gates of hell will not prevail” against the Church is actually coming true.

Much of the negativity of the media towards the Church is undoubtedly fuelled by the calamitous failures of church men and women, not least the clergy. But much of it comes from a searing and subtle hostility towards Catholicism, considered by author James Martin, on this side of the Atlantic, as the “last acceptable prejudice in America.”

In Europe and America it is no longer the totalitarianism of fascism and communism which persecutes Catholics. Instead, it is the totalitarianism of materialism and the anti-theistic culture of secularism. It is also a philosophy of freedom which is essentially adolescent, if not infantile, in rebelling against the objective demands of moral truth.

People are saturated with self-satisfaction and arrogant snobbery towards any notion of obedience and self-discipline, especially if it is religious.

In a way which emulates the Trojan horse of antiquity, many baptized Catholics attack their own Church from the inside in the name of freedom, modernity, democracy or even Christ!

There is a seething disdain for the hierarchy, for Catholic principles and standards and even for the sacraments. The Word of God is selectively quoted to reject Catholic tradition and to justify life-styles which, while fashionable, are in flagrant violation of the will of the Creator.

In a sign of great, if sometimes understandable, confusion, many will cry yes to Christ while voicing their emphatic no to the Church which that same Christ is building on Peter.

Given all this, and, alas, much more, we may wonder whether the gates of hell are not indeed prevailing. The power of evil, be it the Devil himself or the evil in us, is very subtle.

It never presents itself as evil, but always as good, and once you fall for the good, the hidden poison sets in. In its beginnings, evil is never up-front and self-declaratory, but sly, patient and insinuating. Like a terrorist, it slyly boards your plane, occupies the cockpit and then rams you into anything that it can destroy, including you.

It will seduce you into always taking the easy option while firing you up with self-righteous arguments to crush anyone who urges the difficult option, especially the Pope and the priest. Mimicking the good, evil creates alliances between people, like a cancer which metastasizes; it rapidly spreads into all corners of a society before devouring it.

This description of evil is not meant to depress you, but to heighten your awareness of how it works and so help you preserve a sense of Christian realism.

We are surrounded by fake happiness and empty fulfillment. We need to waken up, for our own sakes and for the good of those around us.

Only Christ can unmask, unearth and undo evil. It is only in Peter’s faith in Christ that we can prevail over it. Peter’s faith in the Son of God is the Father’s gift, guaranteed by the Spirit.

If we want our faith never to fail, we need in us the faith of Peter. Though many reject it; though the Church be reduced to the tiny group she once was; though the media, the winds of culture and society and the opposition of the world beset her, she will not, for she cannot, fail: she is founded on Peter, the Rock.

Because of this, we need never lose hope for the Church. All the real good that is in the world, and there is much of it, is gladly, if carefully, embraced by the Pope, for all of it is ultimately anchored in Christ and therefore in the Church herself.

All we need do is keep our eyes on Peter and on what way he turns those keys. In him we can be sure of where we stand and of how to proceed with strong heart and firm step towards the Kingdom of Heaven.

Msgr. Peter Magee

Sunday, August 21^st, 2005

Annunication Church, DC – 8.30 am