Saint Peter, Fisher of Men, June 29

There’s a painting of Saint Peter in the Immaculate Heart of Mary Chapel here at the monastery in Richmond, NH, which, I believe, had to have been drawn from a photograph. Every time I look at it I think to myself “Yes, that is what the first pope must have looked like.” His hair is silvery-white and wind-blown and his face is ruddy, wrinkled enough, and weather-beaten. Were it not for the keys he has folded across his breast you could take him for an old sea captain trying to read a forecast from the sky on a distant horizon.

He and his brother Andrew were disciples of Saint John the Baptist, who had established his mission in Bethania, near the River Jordan and the Dead Sea, about a two-day journey from their home in Bethsaida of Galilee. The Apostle Philip, from the same city, was also a disciple of the Baptist, and perhaps there were others in the penitential school among the Twelve, whom the Gospels do not mention explicitly as such. All of the Apostles, with the exception of Judas of Iscariot, were from Galilee.

Tradition has it that Andrew was younger than Peter, and we know from the Gospel of John that he was with the Baptist when he gave testimony of Christ declaring: Behold the Lamb of God. Andrew and another disciple then followed Jesus to His dwelling place and they remained with Him that day. Andrew, then, “findeth first his brother Simon, and saith to him: We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. And Jesus looking upon him, said: Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter. On the following day, he would go forth into Galilee, and he findeth Philip. And Jesus saith to him: Follow me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith to him: We have found him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write, Jesus the son of Joseph of Nazareth” (1:41-45). Being that it was common in Galilee of the Gentiles for Jews to have both a Greek and a Hebrew name, some Church historians believed that Nathanael and the Apostle Bartholomew are the same person because in all four listings scripture gives of the names of the Twelve Philip and Bartholomew always are together.

From this account we can gather that Simon Peter was also a disciple of John. Why? Because he was in Judea close by the house where Jesus was staying. For it can be implied in the way the narrative reads that Andrew went quickly to find his brother and bring him to Jesus. What did he say to his brother? “We have found the Messias.” Imagine what such an announcement meant to a faithful Jew waiting in expectation for the “Saint of saints” spoken of by Daniel the prophet.

It does not appear that Andrew was with John on the preceding day when Christ came to be baptized by him and the prophet saw the Spirit of God descend upon Him and a voice from heaven was heard: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 2:17). “The next day, John saw Jesus coming to him, and he saith: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who taketh away the sin of the world. This is he, of whom I said: After me there cometh a man, who is preferred before me: because he was before me. And I knew him not, but that he may be made manifest in Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John gave testimony, saying: I saw the Spirit coming down, as a dove from heaven, and he remained upon him. And I knew him not; but he who sent me to baptize with water, said to me: He upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining upon him, he it is that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and I gave testimony, that this is the Son of God” (John 1:26-34).

John had been giving testimony since he began baptizing that the Messias was about to reveal Himself. He recognized Him from his mother’s womb thirty years before while they were both as yet preborns. When the scribes and Pharisees had sent inquirers to him to ask why he baptized with water and if he were the Christ he denied he was the Christ and said: “I baptize with water; but there hath stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not. The same is he that shall come after me, who is preferred before me: the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Bethania, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing” (John 1:26-28).

On this great feast day of the Prince of the Apostles I would like to focus only the first meeting between Christ and His future Vicar. “We have found the Messias,” Andrew announced excitedly to his brother. Philip, equally excited, gave the same message to Nathanael: “We have found him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write, Jesus the son of Joseph of Nazareth” (John 1:45). Never were there two messengers delivering a more important message than Andrew and Philip. Andrew has the honor of being the first to “follow” Jesus, the first called, the protoclete.  Of Philip, however, the Gospel tells us that Jesus “findeth him,” as He was departing for Galilee, and specifically said to him “Follow me.” Andrew followed without being asked; Philip received a personal invitation.

Meanwhile Simon, having heard his brother’s testimony, followed him to see Jesus. Andrew introduces his brother and Jesus “looking upon him, said: Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter” (vs 42). It is all so simple and yet so monumental an event. Christ addresses him formally as “son of Jona.” Immediately He changes his name to “rock” to anticipate his mission. The Church would be made up of faithful men and the Body of Christ, which is the Church, would be built upon the foundation of  a faithful man as its visible head. What kind of faith did the “Rock” have? Well, when Our Lord revealed His most challenging doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, and the crowds murmured “scandalous,” and walked with Him no more, it was Peter who spoke up and reassured God Himself: “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have known, that thou art the Christ, the Son of God” (John 6:69).

The Father of Faith, Abraham, was commanded by God to sacrifice his first-born son, the son of the promise. Abraham did not walk away because he found the command too hard. His obedience was in his faith. It was as if Abraham said within himself: “I must obey God, because God is true. Out of my son’s lifeless flesh, He shall fulfill His promise and raise up seed to Isaac.” How Abraham prefigured God the Father, and Isaac prefigured the Lamb of God, and Mount Moriah the Via Dolorosa to Calvary (Isaac carried the wood for the sacrifice upon his back), is known to all who study the scriptures in the light of Christ and His Church.

Perhaps Simon Bar Jona was there with John the Baptist that day when the prophet excoriated the pride of the scribes and Pharisees and cried out: “Ye brood of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance. And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father. For I tell you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham” (Matt. 3:7-9).

Some Fathers of the Church say that, after crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land, Josua planted twelve stones to honor the twelve sons of Jacob and that this petrine monument of stones still existed and was a revered holy place among the Jews even fifteen hundred after they were planted. They say that the Baptist was pointing to these stones as he uttered these words of rebuke.

Children from stones? Fiery words of Faith indeed! Words even more worthy than the words of Abraham as he considered God’s promise and the lifeless body that he would be leaving upon the rock on Mount Moriah. Children from a corpse?

When the crowd, including most of His disciples, objected to Our Lord’s revelation of the Holy Eucharist, they murmured “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” And, “This saying is hard, who can hear it?” True enough, if Christ were a mere man. Jesus answered the objections: “Doth this scandalize you? If then you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life” (John 6:62-64).

“The flesh profiteth nothing.” The Commentary on this verse from the Douay Rheims edition of the Bible reads:  Dead flesh separated from the spirit, in the gross manner they supposed they were to eat his flesh, would profit nothing. Neither doth man’s flesh, that is to say, man’s natural and carnal apprehension, (which refuses to be subject to the spirit, and words of Christ,) profit any thing. But it would be the height of blasphemy, to say the living flesh of Christ (which we receive in the blessed sacrament, with his spirit, that is, with his soul and divinity) profiteth nothing. For if Christ’s flesh had profited us nothing, he would never have taken flesh for us, nor died in the flesh for us. And, “Are spirit and life”: By proposing to you a heavenly sacrament, in which you shall receive, in a wonderful manner, spirit, grace, and life, in its very fountain.

Yes, Peter’s more commonly known profession of Christ’s divinity at Caesarea Philippi was rewarded with the keys: “And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven” (Matt. 16:18). But I like to think that his profession of Faith at Capharnaum was also inspired by the Father and was just as profound, given in darker and far more challenging circumstances.

When Jesus spoke of Himself as The Bread of Life, perhaps Simon Bar Jona remembered the challenge given by the great prophet who was to be martyred at the hand of Herod: “Out of these stones, God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.”

In commenting upon this verse Father Feeney drew forth an awesome truth: The Bread of Life, he said, and the Cup of Eternal Salvation, is it not the fruit of the wheat of the fields and the grape of the vine? And do not the wheat and the grape take their nourishment from the soil, which is often the product of stones crushed into powder by the labor of man?

A faithful man was appointed by God to be the visible head of a Church of members who are of one Faith. The ancient and universal axiom will always stand: Ubi Petrus est, ibi Ecclesia est (Where Peter is, there is the Church).