Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - «Peter, the first of the apostles, received the keys of the kingdom of heaven. With these keys he binds and looses the sins of all the saints, united inseparably to the body of Christ, and shows the faithful the correct route to follow in this life agitated by tempests. Whereas John the evangelist, laid his head on the breast of Christ. This gesture recalls the repose of the saints, repose they will find on that breast at last safe from waves and secret which is the blessed life ”. Saint Augustine continues by saying that not only to these two apostles "but to all the Lord opened the same source of the Gospel so that all men and women all over the earth might drink, each to his own capacity» (Treatises on John, 124, 7;CCL 36, 687).
We should reflect on this every day, every time we experience our sinfulness, our weakness. Then we will not be scandalised by articles and books which circulate, to 'put in the pillory' , true or presumed “failings” of the men of the Church who may have succumbed to the Enemy.
Peter with his failings and his fears loved Jesus deeply, so deeply that he shed his blood for Him, and was crucified head downwards, as tradition says, since he considered himself unworthy to die in the same way as his Lord!
Therefore we understand that when the Church “sinks” – only temporarily – due to the sins of her members, it is urgent done to return to Grace. It is necessary to multiply societies, fraternities, friendships, communions which live in poverty, chastity and above all obedience, and in this way bring almost inadvertently Jesus to the centre and Christianity to the faith. Just as St Francis did. This is the path of holiness, to which God usually gives rise simply, with apparently insignificant deeds, moving from the individual to the universal.
Instead of “biting and devouring one another”, we should think of all those who have yet to know God, to know Christ, a new paganism which can only be tackled by witnessing and living the love of God. We must overcome the presumption of being better than others. Instead we would do well to ask ourselves – as Benedict XVI wrote in a Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on 10 March 2009 – if we are always willing to learn the supreme priority: love!
We must overcome our fear: fear which keeps us cold and closed up in ourselves, instead of embracing and hugging those who wish to love us. To learn to love we should follow the “method” of Gregory of Nissa: «If love conquers fears and turns it into love, we find that what saves us is precisely unity. Salvation means in fact knowing that we are fused in love with the one true Good through the perfection found in the Dove …the bond of this unity is authentic glory …No one can deny in fact that the Holy Spirit is to be called “glory”(Jn 17,22) » (homely on the Canticle of canticles, 15; PG 44, 1115.1117). This glory shows itself if, like Christ, we break down the walls of our resistance to love and pass through Him, indeed through one another, in one another, like the lance that opened his Heart, receiving and giving in return. This is the truth of love which overcomes all weakness.
Paul too, lived the same experience: “a thorn in the flesh” was the manner in which God humiliated his greatness; but Grace alleviated his wound, making it depend on visible communion, friendship with those whom God place beside him for the apostolic mission. Hence the need to meditate on the Lord's reply to the Apostle: “ 'My grace is enough for you: for power is at full stretch in weakness ” (2 Cor 12,9). (Agenzia Fides 4/6/2009; righe 41, parole 598)
