U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance was baptized Catholic in August 2019 in a parish in Madeira, Ohio. In his 2026 memoir, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, he describes his faith journey as a search for deep tradition, stability, moral formation and belonging to a community of believers. Since Easter, our Sunday Scriptures have used Acts of the Apostles and other Scriptures to show us the beginning development of those four key traits of Catholicism. Today’s Gospel from Matthew presents the beginning of “stability.” Jesus confers leadership on Peter: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church…” Perhaps there was a bit of twinkle in Jesus’ eye as he said this, because it’s a play on the words petra (Greek for “rock”) and Petros (Peter). Rocks in Hebrew Scripture stand for the steadfastness of God. You are my rock and my salvation (Ps 62.6) is King David’s image for God as a refuge, a fortress, and a source of salvation — like the rock that provided water when the Hebrews fled into the desert (Exodus 17:1–7).
There is another important idea about the power given to Peter: He did not earn it. It is conferred power, and the source of the power is God. There is a long tradition in Hebrew Scripture of this truth that God is “behind the scene” when a leader emerges. Abraham, Moses, David are all examples. St. Paul recognized this about himself: a persecutor of Christians, the other apostles recognized the Lord empowering him to become an “outsider” apostle. When Jesus confronted Pilate during his trial, this exchange takes place: Pilate: “Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus: “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above (John 19:10–11).
Today’s Scripture from Matthew was written around 85 of the Christian era; there was no title of “pope” yet, but the bishop of Rome (where Peter died) was beginning to exercise leadership over other bishops. Over the 20 centuries of our tradition since those early “apostolic times,” we know that popes have not always been models of faith for us. But of the 267 popes, the first 35 of them were saint martyrs, and another 46 have been canonized. The spiritual point here is that the leadership stability in our long tradition rests on our understanding that the source of power, whether power of a pope or our own power, is from God. It takes prayer and reflection to keep this truth in view because we live in a world where power is thought to come from might or wealth, or genius or popularity, or status or … . Through our Catholic faith, both we and our popes our called to exercise power as Jesus did, as a service, with the gentleness of a shepherd and friend, and with the willingness to accept suffering that may come.
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia; Wikimedia Commons photo
The post August 23, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Stability: a Sunday Scriptures blog first appeared on Sisters of the Precious Blood.