21^st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel - Matthew 16:21-27

Key to Success

Along the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum

Door/Ladder, Church of Holy Sepulchre 

 I don’t know if I’m the crazy one or if everyone here has one of these cups sitting around somewhere at home or maybe it’s a drawer or a box in your home.  This cup is filled with keys.  There are house keys and apartment keys, car keys, lock box keys, luggage keys for travel, keys that I don’t even remember what lock they fit.  In a sense, this cup contains a record of my adult life – my first car, my first apartment, our first apartment as husband and wife, the keys we were given when we bought our first and only house.   There are keys that open doors and keys that lock away and protect valuables. 

Keys seem to be a recurring theme in today’s readings.  Eliakim, in the first reading, is given the keys to the House of David the King.  He will control all the storerooms and treasuries of the King.  In effect, he will be responsible for taking care of the needs of the people – providing them with food and resources like a father would for his family.

And in today’s Gospel, Jesus gives to Peter the keys to the Kingdom.   He establishes the Church on the rock, Peter, literally PETRUS which means rock.  Traditionally this scene took place on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, at a place called Tabgha and there is a church called Church of the Primacy of Peter built over the site of that rock!

Jesus first asked His disciples who am I?  His disciples respond with answers like – John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets, you’re a miracle worker, a teacher, a preacher.  Different answers but they all have one thing in common – they reflect a view that Jesus is merely HUMAN!   It’s only Peter who responds with something different, something illuminating – you are the Christ, you are the Son of God – You are Divine!!!  Not just human. 

And for that statement of belief, Jesus established the Church and gives Peter the keys to the Kingdom.  Jesus establishes Peter and his successors, the Popes, as the foundation, the rock, of the Church.  Like Eliakim, Jesus is entrusting Peter with the resources of the Kingdom, to distribute to the faithful!  Jesus established Peter and his successors not as kings but as stewards of the House of God. – to open the way to the Kingdom of Heaven and to safeguard the teachings of Christ, the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God!  Even today we see the image of those keys in the papal coat of arms – 2 crossed keys, one silver and one gold, tied together with a red cord!   

The holiest Christian site in Jerusalem is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the place of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection!  Since the 7^th century, the key to the Church has been held by one family.  Early every morning, around 3am, they open the Church and every night around 9am they lock the doors.  And because the keyhole is so high on the door, a ladder has to be passed through a small opening in the door in order to reach it and then passed back through the hatch. 

It is a ritual that requires cooperation between the family outside and the friars within.  It requires devotion and duty and dedication.  And it is a ritual that requires faith – a shared faith between the Christian priests of the Holy Sepulchre and the Moslem family who have been entrusted with that key for over 500 years.

KEYS!  They open up doorways to new life, new opportunities, and new possibilities!  They lock away and protect our valuables!   Nowadays most of our keys don’t really look all that much like keys anymore; they are a set of words and symbols, they’re the passwords we use to access bank accounts, medical records, email accounts and personal information.  They are the pushbuttons we press to start our cars!

And even in the Church today, keys don’t always look like keys!  I am holding our daughter’s Baptismal candle.  A few days ago was the anniversary of her Baptism.  This is one of many symbols from the Sacrament of Baptism that opened the door to her new life as an adopted daughter of God.  This is a key to her new life as a member of the family of God.

And there is the cross – the key that, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, opened to us all the Kingdom of Heaven.   And yet these are only a few examples.  The keys to the Kingdom are all around us: a grieving mother, a hungry child, a sick parent, a friend suffering from depression, the gradual reopening of our churches to prayer and the sacraments.  These are all keys to our Christian faith, if we only choose to respond to them.

The keys to our faith are all around us!  The question for us is what are we doing with them?  Are they just a fond memory we have stored away to look at from time to time?  Are they hiding in a drawer somewhere lying unused and forgotten?   Or are they an integral part of our faith life, something we carry with us every day?

And that is our challenge today – not to lock our faith away but to OPEN our ears to the Word of God and, like Eliakim in the first reading, to OPEN our hearts and minister to those in need.