Today, the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, we hear about keys in both the Old Testament Reading from the Prophet Isaiah and in the Gospel of St. Matthew. Keys are a sign of authority; they can set you free or lock you in. Keys imply responsibility, ownership and trust. A key is also a means to understanding a map or encrypted writing. It is used in music to denote the relationship of pitches in a tune.
We hear today in Isaiah that God bestows the “key of the House of David on Eliakim’s shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open.” It is authority that is conferred on Eliakim. This also what occurs in the Gospel when Jesus tells Peter he will give him “the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
By our Baptism, we have all been given the keys of the kingdom! What we do here on earth binds us, for good or evil. Christ asks Peter today, “…who do you say I am?” Pete replies that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Saint Pope John Paul II wrote: “we need now more than ever to look the truth in the eye and call things by their proper name, without yielding to convenient compromises or to the temptation of self-deception.” In calling Jesus the Christ, we must become Christians—with all that the name implies!
In conforming ourselves to Jesus, our lives must change profoundly, we must be converted and transformed. Simon names Jesus as Christ and becomes Peter and is given the “keys.” Peter is more now than his failings, his sins, his sorrows, his hopelessness, his anger. In his new identity he has the support, love and reconciliation of Christ. He can look at himself in the mirror and call it like it is. Then he can ask for forgiveness, and the grace and strength to be transformed.
We all have been given these keys to the kingdom of heaven: reconciliation, the courage and the support to withstand the assault of sin, and the wisdom to call Jesus by His proper name—our Sovereign King, the Christ.
Keep singing!
Elizabeth Dyc
We hear today in Isaiah that God bestows the “key of the House of David on Eliakim’s shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open.” It is authority that is conferred on Eliakim. This also what occurs in the Gospel when Jesus tells Peter he will give him “the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
By our Baptism, we have all been given the keys of the kingdom! What we do here on earth binds us, for good or evil. Christ asks Peter today, “…who do you say I am?” Pete replies that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Saint Pope John Paul II wrote: “we need now more than ever to look the truth in the eye and call things by their proper name, without yielding to convenient compromises or to the temptation of self-deception.” In calling Jesus the Christ, we must become Christians—with all that the name implies!
In conforming ourselves to Jesus, our lives must change profoundly, we must be converted and transformed. Simon names Jesus as Christ and becomes Peter and is given the “keys.” Peter is more now than his failings, his sins, his sorrows, his hopelessness, his anger. In his new identity he has the support, love and reconciliation of Christ. He can look at himself in the mirror and call it like it is. Then he can ask for forgiveness, and the grace and strength to be transformed.
We all have been given these keys to the kingdom of heaven: reconciliation, the courage and the support to withstand the assault of sin, and the wisdom to call Jesus by His proper name—our Sovereign King, the Christ.
Keep singing!
Elizabeth Dyc
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