Big-hearted Church

“You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.” We draw great consolation from this passage (Matt 16:13-20) anointing Peter (and his successors) as the foundation of Jesus’ Church, holding the “keys to the Kingdom,” underpinning the apostolic succession which is the basis of our Church today.

We are reminded though that “Church” is not the “end game”, Church is but a conduit leading us to the Kingdom of God, which is a different thing altogether.

“The divine wish for us is to become the people we were created to be by falling more fully in alignment with God’s vision for the world, thus ushering in more swiftly the complete reign of God. That, and only that, is what gives God true worship. Pope Francis is a constant critic of any other priorities.” (An Astonishing Secret, Fr Daniel O’Leary, 2017)

Peter is invested with the keys, but moments after this astounding authority is bestowed upon him, he makes the first of his many errors and derelictions as leader, illustrating that he and his brothers still have a lot to learn. Only in faithfully proclaiming the Kingdom of God is Peter empowered to lead, to bind and to loosen.

Peter and the apostles and their successors are not fierce gatekeepers of some narrowly defined future Kingdom in the clouds, but rather proclaimers of the Kingdom with us and around us, even in the here and now. God’s Kingdom was Jesus’ whole message and purpose and that continues to be the role of the Pope, the Bishops and the Church, proclaiming Jesus through friendship with sinners, seeking the lost, welcoming, listening to and walking with those who suffer, concerned with people’s happiness - “a big-hearted Church in which we go to work every morning for the reign of God, knowing that God has made the sun rise on the evil and the good….. to see Jesus alive and up close, understanding his message, grasping his deepest insights, and feeling the heat of his passion for God and humanity.” (Pagola p446-450)