Matthew 16:13-20

The Gospel reading is Peter’s confession. Several brief things. The region of Caesarea Philippi at the headwaters of the Jordan River was the location of a Temple to Caesar, a center of emperor worship in the inland as one moved toward Damascus. Jesus asks the question in a politically loaded area. Second, of course, Messiah is the name for the King of Israel – not a “spiritual king” versus a “physical king” – obviously Jesus is a real, physical body in the passage. Third, Jesus acts as a real king in granting “keys of the kingdom” to “bind and loose”. Such is the authority of king’s. The brief observations make the discussion more understandable.

Given what we’ve read in the Gospel of Matthew in the past seven or so chapters, why would “people” answer as the disciples say? Why would Jesus shift from language about “son of Man” to “I” in designating himself when he turns the question to the disciples? To whom does Jesus credit Simon’s insight? (notice his Jewish name!) What is the point of this? What is the “rock”? (btw, this is a notoriously difficult question that has been asked through history in the church!) Why does Jesus not commission Peter to build the church? Who builds it? With what? Finally, what is Peter’s and the disciples role? What is the relationship between the church and the kingdom of heaven? Given this, why would Jesus tell his disciples not to tell anyone the truth about who Jesus is?

Isaiah 51:1-6

As you read this passage, who is “you” and who is “me”? What characterizes “you” and “me”? How do “you” and “me” relate to the other characters in the passage? What role does “Zion” play? How does “you” relate to “Zion”? What is the function of “you” in relationship to “the nations”? How do you hear this passage as related to the Gospel passage?

Romans 11:33-36

The Gospel reading shows the movement of fulfillment from the Isaiah reading. In this process, we discover that the words of the prophet are taking up and fulfilled in unanticipated ways in Jesus Christ and the live of the church, arising from the confession of Peter. While the words had a meaning to the “original audience” of the words, these words are not canceled but expanded, lifted, and perfected in Jesus, so much so that the “you” addressed in Isaiah, through our participation in the confession of Peter, becomes “us”.

How does the Romans passage “explain” God? How does it “explain” how the movement from Isaiah to Matthew to us takes place? What does this tell us about our lives, our world? What does it mean for “all things” to be “from God and through God and to God”? Is God a “thing”?
What does this suggest about God and creation? Christians used to – and still should – speak of God’s Providence. Why do we need “faith” and how does “faith” need “hope” and “hope” call for “love”? What is the basis for our faith, hope, and love?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church bears several paragraphs about God’s Providence (302-24; see http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p1s2c1p4.htm#V). How do you think that the catechism describes the movement from the Gospel to the Prophetic reading and summarizes the Romans reading? Why does one need faith in Jesus to understand fully Providence?

302 Creation has its own goodness and proper perfection, but it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator. The universe was created "in a state of journeying" (in statu viae) toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it. We call "divine providence" the dispositions by which God guides his creation toward this perfection:

By his providence God protects and governs all things which he has made, "reaching mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and ordering all things well". For "all are open and laid bare to his eyes", even those things which are yet to come into existence through the free action of creatures.161

303 The witness of Scripture is unanimous that the solicitude of divine providence is concrete and immediate; God cares for all, from the least things to the great events of the world and its history. The sacred books powerfully affirm God's absolute sovereignty over the course of events: "Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases."162 And so it is with Christ, "who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens".163 As the book of Proverbs states: "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will be established."164

304 And so we see the Holy Spirit, the principal author of Sacred Scripture, often attributing actions to God without mentioning any secondary causes. This is not a "primitive mode of speech", but a profound way of recalling God's primacy and absolute Lordship over history and the world,165 and so of educating his people to trust in him. The prayer of the Psalms is the great school of this trust.166

305 Jesus asks for childlike abandonment to the providence of our heavenly Father who takes care of his children's smallest needs: "Therefore do not be anxious, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?". . . Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well."167