Isaiah 22:19-23 / Romans 11:33-36 / Matthew 16:13-20
The knowledge of the reality that we see around us is usually accumulated from what we were taught, what we were told and from what we experienced through our senses.
So whatever we know is either based on facts, on accounts from others or from the testimonies of others.
But there are also some things that we accept without questioning, like the existence of places that we have never been to, events that happened in history, right down to the acceptance that we are born of a particular set of parents.
Hence, much of our knowledge is actually based on faith, faith in the broadest sense of the word.
Without faith in that sense, we will be burdened by doubts and paralyzed with questions.
In today’s Gospel, we come to know of something that would require a specific kind of faith, and that is faith in the religious sense.
When Jesus asked His disciples, who do they say He is, Simon Peter spoke up: You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
But how did Simon Peter know this? How did he find it out?
And here we are presented with another source of knowledge, which is called a revelation.
And Jesus says where Peter got this knowledge from: It was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven.
And from that revelation, Jesus went on to speak about two realities.
One is the Church, which Jesus said: You are Peter and on this rock I will build My church.
That is also a revelation, that the Church is not just a mere human institution but also a Divine institution, founded by Jesus Christ.
And there is also another revelation when Jesus said this: The gates of the underworld can never hold out against it.
So it means that the Church will triumph over evil and evil cannot destroy the Church.
But the Church is divine as well as human, just as Jesus is divine as well as human.
As much as the divine nature of the church cannot be destroyed by evil, very often it is the human nature of the church that is subjected to weakness and sinfulness from the temptations of the evil one.
But to focus and criticize the sinfulness and the weaknesses of the church is just looking at one side of the coin.
The Divine aspect of the Church is a revelation from God. When we believe in this divine revelation, then we will be united in the divine mission of salvation.
When we truly believe in that divine revelation, then that knowledge can dissolve fear, just as light scatters the darkness.
Let us live in the light of God’s revelation and be courageous members of the Church in the mission of salvation.