21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mt 16:13-20
August 27, 2023

This week’s Gospel uses a familiar image for us to play with: keys. Where are the keys and who has them? It is a frustrating experience to lose your keys because access is denied to you. It’s not that someone else has done this to you; you just forgot where you put them. They are here, but where? How we use the word “key” is a theme for this Sunday.

Our Old Testament Reading describes an arrogant and untrustworthy steward. Jewish historians actually suggest that he was conspiring with foreign enemies. When his treachery was revealed, “the keys” that were not only a symbol of the power and authority of his office, but literally gave him access to what was valuable and important, were taken from him.

I would venture to guess that if you asked Roman Catholics, especially those whose faith formation and religious education was influenced by the Baltimore Catechism, what “the keys” represent in today’s Gospel, the response would be immediate and consistent. Jesus made Peter the first Pope when He handed him “the keys.” For them, “the keys” are a symbol of power and authority. This image is definitely supported by Church teaching and tradition.

I feel fairly confident that even someone “unchurched” would respond to that question without too much forethought. Who hasn’t heard some silly joke depicting St. Peter as a heavenly security guard standing at the “pearly gates”? This image goes beyond the power of the papacy. The idea being that, somehow, St. Peter has been entrusted with the responsibility of admitting or denying access to the kingdom of God. “The keys” are to the celestial courthouse. Peter judges who gets in and who is barred.

For me, this image seems a bit misleading, to say the least. Among other concerns this interpretation raises, it means that God has delegated Divine judgment. In spite of the fact that The Lord specifically mentions “binding and loosing” to imply that an individual’s salvation is in the hands of anyone other than Almighty God, is not consistent with Church teaching or tradition.

To help put this whole thing in better perspective, we might consider how a Jewish Rabbi would answer the question: What do you think Jesus meant when He told Peter that He was giving him “the keys” to the Kingdom? An observant Jew of Jesus’s time would most likely recognize the symbolism at play here. In the Hebraic teaching and tradition, the word “key” used in a situation like this would infer God’s Law and/or Wisdom.

How would St. Peter, a devout Jew, respond if asked: “Why do most statues or paintings of you show you holding a key?” Since he was wise enough to recognize that Jesus is The Christ, wouldn’t he be wise enough to recognize that “the key” entrusted to him by The Lord is The Gospel? And wouldn’t he also be wise enough to recognize that at the very core of the Gospel is LOVE, caring for one another?
If you have misplaced your keys and if there is such a thing as an encounter with St. Peter at the “pearly gates,” he will help you find them. He will look at you and see a loving person who has done their best to actually LIVE the Gospel, and he will recognize you as a disciple of Jesus Christ, and the gates will swing wide open and you will be welcomed into Paradise by the Angels and the Saints!