We have seen that according to the Council’s teaching, which is a summary of the Church’s traditional doctrine, there exists an “order of bishops which is the successor to the college of the apostles in their role as teachers and pastors.” Indeed this episcopal college “gives this apostolic body continued existence, [and] is also the subject of supreme and full power over the universal Church, provided we understand this body together with its head the Roman Pontiff and never without this head. This power can be exercised only with the consent of the Roman Pontiff” (LG 22).
This text of Vatican II tells us about the Petrine ministry exercised in the Church by the Bishop of Rome as the head of the episcopal college. We will devote the set of catecheses that we are beginning today to this important and significant point of Catholic doctrine. We intend to give a clear, reasoned exposition of this teaching, in which the feeling of personal inadequacy is joined to that of the responsibility which stems from Jesus’ mandate to Peter, and in particular, from the divine teacher’s response to this profession of faith in the region of Caesarea Philippi (cf. Mt 16:13-19).
Let us again examine the text and context of the important dialogue handed down to us by the evangelist Matthew. After asking: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (Mt 16:13), Jesus asked his apostles a more direct question: “But who do you say that I am?” (Mt 16:15). It is already significant that Simon answered in the name of the Twelve: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:13-16). One might think that Simon made himself the spokesman for the Twelve by force of his own more vigorous and impulsive personality. Possibly this factor came into play to some extent. However, Jesus attributed his answer to a special revelation from the heavenly Father: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father” (Mt 16:17). Above and beyond factors of temperament, character, ethnic background or social status (“flesh and blood”), Simon was the beneficiary of an illumination and inspiration from on high that Jesus identified as “revelation.” In virtue of this revelation Simon made a profession of faith in the name of the Twelve.
Here is Jesus’ declaration, which in the very solemnity of its form manifests the binding and constitutive meaning that the Teacher intends to give it: “And so I say to you, you are Peter” (Mt 16:18). The declaration is indeed solemn: “I say to you.” It involves Jesus’ sovereign authority. It is a word of revelation, of effective revelation in that it accomplishes what it says.
A new name was given to Simon, the sign of a new mission. That this name was given is confirmed by Mark (3:16) and Luke (6:14) in their accounts of the choice of the Twelve. John also speaks of it, indicating that Jesus used the Aramaic word Kephas , which in Greek is translated as Petros (Jn 1:42).
We should remember that the Aramaic word Kephas which Jesus used, as well as the Greek word Petros which translates it, means “rock.” In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus gave the example of the “wise man who built his house on rock” (Mt 7:24). Addressing Simon, Jesus declared to him that because of his faith, a gift from God, he had the solidity of rock upon which an unshakable edifice could be built. Jesus then stated his own decision to build on this rock just such a building–his Church.
