Peter’s Kerygma and the Voice of the Shepherd

St. Agnes Catholic Church
4th Sunday in Easter
Cycle A
Apr 29 & 30, 2023 https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/043023.cfm

Ten years ago, Kate and I travelled to Rome and the Vatican for our honeymoon.  We spent a couple days exploring St. Peter’s Basilica, which as I am sure you know is the biggest church in the world, located in Vatican City where the pope lives and the global Catholic Church is centered.   We signed up for a special tour that took us deep into the necropolis underneath St. Peter’s Basilica. The great church was built onto what used to be a cemetery on Vatican Hill on the spot where St. Peter was martyred.

It takes about an hour to explore this subterranean cemetery.  The ground slowly rises until you come to an ancient tomb, which is marked by a very simple monument that is scrawled with Greek graffiti saying, “this is Peter.” In the center, is a simple, transparent box containing the very bones of Peter.  

As we ascended back to the floor of the main church above, the massive dome of Michelangelo rose 42 stories high above us (452 feet).  Written around its edge are the words of Jesus, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.”  It was incredibly moving to realize that this church is literally built upon the body of St. Peter.  This simple fisherman became the rock that we stand on—the first of 266 popes. 

During this Easter season, we have been hearing Peter’s voice every Sunday in the first and second readings.  In the Acts of the Apostles, we been hearing five of his passionate sermons in Jerusalem, including today when we heard his words on the day of Pentecost.  The last three weeks, we have also been hearing from the first of two letters are attributed to him.     

All of this—Peter’s life, career, and legacy following the resurrection—is remarkable when you consider that Peter was essentially a failed disciple.  Yes, failed. Here is a small sampling of his failures: Peter frequently misunderstood Jesus’ preaching—loudly contradicting him when he, Peter, doesn’t comprehend the message.  Peter stops the children from coming to Jesus.  He tells Jesus not to wash his feet at the Last Supper.  He falls asleep in the garden when Jesus pleads for Peter to stay awake with him.  He tells Jesus that he does not need to be arrested—and even violently resists it.  He runs away and three times denies even knowing him.  Finally, after the resurrection he tries to return to his former occupation as a fisherman, abandoning his discipleship.

Peter did not have the faith in Jesus to walk on water for more than a few steps before sinking.  And yet, on Pentecost Sunday, he received the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  The power of God descended upon him and he is changed.  We see him preaching with power.  Bringing a woman back from the dead, healing the sick, and fearlessly defying the authorities who threaten him with imprisonment, torture, and execution. This new, transformed Peter is walking on water.  We hear the risen Christ living and speaking in him. Through the power of his preaching, 3000 people are baptized.  It is the voice of the Good Shepherd, Jesus, that we hear speaking through Peter’s mouth.

From Peter, we can take three lessons.  First, we learn what God can do through those of us who believe, even though we are apparently failed disciples.  Jesus can change the world through us.  He can make us the rock, the cornerstone of a mighty edifice.  A church against whom not even the gates of hell can prevail.   

Second, we a reminded that Peter is a shepherd.  Our bishops show us that with the special stick that they carry, called a crosier, that looks like a shepherd’s crook.  Though Peter is not the Good Shepherd himself—that is Jesus—St. Peter the pope and all his successors speak with a unique voice of authority.  The Catholic Church is the oldest continually operating organization in the western world and Jesus has promised us that will never will never fail. 

As people of faith, we need to listen carefully to Pope Francis and his predecessors and eventual successors.  We should avoid the temptation to filter his words through our own ideologies and American partisan politics.  We should recognize that often the pope speaks with the voice of the Good Shepherd. 

The third and final lesson from Peter challenges the first two: even though Peter was transformed by Easter and by Pentecost, he does not become perfect.  He is still fallible … still a disciple who sometimes fails.  In Peter’s epistle today, he instructs Christian slaves to endure suffering even when they don’t deserve it, offering their pain to Christ who also suffered undeservedly. This is a good spiritual message, bu Peter notably offers no advice and no challenge to enslavers, to slave masters, about their obligations.  It makes me wonder, if Peter had listened more closely to voices of Christian slaves in the first century, how different our history would look.

The voice of the Good Shepherd is also speaking to us through the smallest voices, the most marginalized, the enslaved, the despised and forgotten.  We need to listen intently for His voice speaking to us from on high and from below. 

God bless us and may Christ’s resurrection give us all ears to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd.  For He calls us all by name.  Even when we walk through the valley of the shadow death, we shall fear no evil; for He is by our side.