In the Land of the Gentiles
Solemnity of SS Peter and Paul. Fr Bruno Clifton reminds us that we do not begin the Christian journey as perfect saints.
Jesus comes to the region of Caesarea Philippi. That’s interesting in itself. This area is right in the north of Israel, the lush, verdant country that borders Lebanon, and, in the first century at least, a land of Gentiles.
It is here we find the source of the Jordan River, which bubbles from the rock amid sunlit trees and cooling breezes. So beautiful that the Romans built a shrine to the god Pan there, praising the miracle of the river that flows from rock. The river that marked the entrance to the promised land and was parted by the Ark of the Covenant, the river where John baptised, finds its beginning in a pagan shrine and a land of foreigners.
So, Jesus and his disciples have come among the Gentiles and away from home: in this way, we can see how Saint Paul follows his Master. These pagans have little interest in the heritage of the Jews, no thoughts of a Messiah or of God’s Covenant. Hellenistic Roman symbols, culture, and language seem ill-equipped to place the identity of God’s anointed.
It is not a coincidence that it is in this region that Jesus asks about his own identity. ‘Who do people say I am? (Matt 16:13). All the answers spring from Jewish heritage: some say Elijah or Jeremiah. That is, drought or exile; punishment and sin: strong images in the luxurious context of the Gentile shrine. Cool water flowing amid lush vegetation under the sun. Maybe such suggestions didn’t ring true, but it was all they had. Except for Peter: who was given more – ‘you are the Christ’ (Matt 16:16).
It is often said that, rather than the impressive rock of Caesarea Philippi, Peter’s faith is the rock on which the Church is built, a faith given to him by the Father. But, just like the rock from whose clefts, caves and crevices flows the Jordan, Peter’s faith—the Church’s faith—has its cracks and fissures. And we don’t have to wait very long in the scene to see them appear: ‘Get behind me Satan. For your ways are not God’s, but man’s’ (Matt 16:23). Not very promising, and things get worse. Just as Peter was graced with knowledge of Christ’s identity, so he denies he even knows Jesus.
Peter abandons the perfect knowledge he receives. For all his faith, he is not the perfect Apostle. Is Paul? He follows the Lord away from his home to preach to the Gentiles; through every tribulation he brings the Good News to the world. ‘I have fought the good fight; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith’ (2 Tim 4:7).
And we are encouraged to focus upon the teaching of Paul because he comes to follow Jesus: ‘Imitate me, as I imitate Christ’, he says (1 Cor 11:1). But we know he didn’t start from here. ‘For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God’ (1 Cor. 15.9).
Paul didn’t come to know Jesus because of his righteous efforts, and neither did Peter. The knowledge of Christ is given not seized and can be given to all, even to a traitor and a persecutor. And not only that, but the Church can be built on such people. The perfect Apostles are found wearing the crown of righteousness only on that Day, the day of the Lord – and it is his gift.
So the experience of Paul is that which calls us to the same task of building the Body of Christ: ‘The Lord stood by me and gave me power, so that through me the whole message might be proclaimed for all the pagans to hear’ (2 Tim 4:17). We mustn’t think that perfection is the price of entry. Membership of the body of Christ brings us from sinners to perfect love. ‘Until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ’ (Eph 4:13). If only we grasp the gift of faith on which the Church is built: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God’ (Matt 16:16).
