Peter is the rock

It has been written that, if there is a scripture passage that can best define Catholicism, it is the one contained in today's Gospel according to St Matthew. It deals with the so-called 'Petrine promise'.

One day, apparently out of the blue, Jesus asks his disciples: "Who do the people say I am?" Their answer was a rather vague one, and in fact quite far off the mark, ranging from John the Baptist to one of the prophets.

Jesus, however, retorted and sets to them this point blank question: "What do you say that I am?" Then Peter, as usual the most spontaneous of them all, suddenly comes out with this solid proclamation: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!"

Just as Our Lord's question was of paramount importance for Jesus, no less important for Peter was Our Lord's solemn reply to him in the presence of the rest of the disciples: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I shall build my Church."

The Latin word petra means rock. In Our Lord's plan for his Church, Peter and his successors as heads of the Church throughout the centuries were to be the 'rock', the solid foundation and guarantee for the success of the Church's mission.

It goes without saying that Jesus Christ was and remains the one and only supreme head of the Church he instituted, the ultimate guarantor for the success of the Church's mission throughout the centuries. It is however through the Popes, successors of St Peter, that such a guarantee remains present and active in the Church to this very day.

All this has been seen to be true in the Church of Christ throughout history. We see it verified in our own time today, and it will remain true to the end of time. The Church's life has indeed been subjected to serious difficulties and cruel prosecutions from the beginning of its existence to our own time, but it has always come out victorious, as world history can testify. Meanwhile empires have come and gone, terrible wars have been waged, bringing about the fall of emperors and tyrants, but in spite of them all the Church has survived and remained true to its saving mission.

Since Vatican II we have now become quite familiar with the word ecumenism, denoting a 'movement' centred upon a renewed interest in the unity between all Christian Churches. There is indeed only one Church of Christ, because Christ has founded only one. Throughout the centuries, however, the unity of Christ's Church has suffered setbacks and fractures, some of which unfortunately still exist to today.

Although the misunderstandings that have arisen in the past mostly had to do with doctrinal matters, the end result was failure to recognise the primacy of Peter's successors, the Popes. The so-called ecumenical movement, as we know, has recently been gaining considerable momentum in our own day and since Vatican II.

One, of course, would have liked to see better results leading to full Christian unity and to the recognition of the Holy Father as the head of the universal Church, not without making allowance for legitimate diversities because of different cultures and other matters which are not directly related to Christ's own understanding of Church unity.

All of us as Christians should, directly or indirectly, become involved in the ecumenical movement. It is indeed the will of God that all Christians be united in his one and true Church. All of us would stand to gain from the achievement of full unity among Christians. It is our duty to pray for a universal Christian unity.