THOU
ART THE CHRIST
But what did Jesus care what was said of Him
by the men of the lake and of the cities, Jesus who could read in their souls
the thoughts hidden even to themselves? Long before that day Jesus alone knew
with overwhelming certainty what His real name was, and what was His superhuman
nature. As a matter of fact He did not ask that He might know, but, now that
the end was near, that His faithful followers might know, His real name, at
last—even they.
"Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others,
Jeremias or, one of the Prophets." (Matt. 16:14)
What were these things to Him, these rudimentary guesses
of the poor and the ignorant? He wished the definite answer to come from His
Disciples, destined as they were to follow His work and to bear witness to Him
among the peoples and the centuries. Even at the last He did not wish to impose
by force a belief on those who had seen His life close at hand and had heard
Him speak. The recognition of His superb human mission, that name which not one
of them up to that time had pronounced (as if they were afraid of it, as if it
were too dangerous a secret to speak aloud), that recognition on the part of
the Twelve should be free and spontaneous, should burst out, an
impetuous confession of love, from one of those souls, should be pronounced by
one of those mouths.
"But whom say ye that I am?" (Vs. 15) And then there came
to Simon Peter the great light that was almost too great for him, and made him
First to all eternity. He could not keep back the words, they came to his lips
almost involuntarily in a cry of which he himself the moment before would have
believed himself incapable: "Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Thou hast the word of eternal life,
and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living
God." (Matt. 16:16-17)
At last from Peter the Rock
there sprang forth the wellspring which from that day to this has quenched the
thirst of seventy generations of men. It was his right and his reward. Peter
had been the first to follow Christ in the divine wanderings: it was for him
to be the first to recognize in the wanderer the Proclaimer of the Kingdom, the
everlasting and lawful sovereign of that Kingdom, the Messiah whom all men had
been awaiting in the desert of the centuries, who had finally come and was
there Himself, clothed in flesh, standing before their eyes, with His feet in
the dust of the road.
The pure King, the Son of
Justice, the Prince of Peace, the Son of Man sent by God, the Savior, the
Anointed, whom the prophets had foretold in the twilight of sorrow and
affliction; who had been seen by apocalyptic writers descending upon the earth
like lightning, in the fullness of victory and glory; for whom the poor, the
wounded, the hungry, the afflicted, had been waiting from century to century,
as dry grass waits for rain, as the flower waits for the sun, as the mouth
awaits the kiss, and the heart, consolation; the Son of God and of Man, the Man
who hid God in human flesh, the God who cloaked His divinity in Adam's clay, it
is He, the dear Brother of every day, who looks quietly into the astounded eyes
of those chosen ones!
The period of waiting is done; ended is the
vigil! Why had they not recognized Him until that day? Whence did it come in
those simple souls, the first notion of the true name of Him who so many times
had taken them by the hand, and had spoken for their ears to hear? They could
never think that one of them—a common man like them, a workman and poor as they
were—could be the Savior Messiah announced and awaited by saints and by the
centuries. With the intellect alone they could never have discovered Him, nor
with the mere bodily senses, nor with the teachings of the scriptures; only
with the inspiration, the intuition, the sudden flaming illumination of the
heart, as it happened that day in the soul of Peter. "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona; for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven." (Vs. 17) Fleshly
eyes would not have been able to see what they saw without a revelation from on
high.
But weighty consequences flow
from the choice of Peter for this proclamation. It is a reward which calls for
other recompense, "Thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hell shall not prevail
against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and
whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever
thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven." (Matt. 16:18-19)
Weighty words from which have emerged, through the patient
germination of long centuries, helped by the fire of faith and by the blood of
witnesses, one of the greatest Kingdoms which men have ever established upon
the earth; the only one of the old kingdoms which still lives on in the same
city which saw the rise and fall of the proudest and most pompous of earthly
kingdoms. For these words many men suffered, many were tortured, many
were killed. To deny or uphold, to interpret or cancel these words, thousands
of men have been killed in city squares and in battles; kingdoms have been
divided, societies have been shaken and torn, nations have waged war, emperors
and beggars have given their all. But their meaning in Christ's mouth is plain
and simple. He means to say, "Thou,
Peter, shalt be hard and staunch as a rock, and upon the staunchness of thy
faith in me, which thou vast the first to profess, is founded the first
Christian society, the humble seed of the Kingdom. Against this Church which today
has only twelve citizens but which will be spread to the limits of the earth,
the forces of evil cannot prevail, because you are the Spirit and the Spirit
cannot be overcome and dimmed by matter. Thou shalt close forever—and when I
speak to thee I am speaking to all those who shall succeed thee united in the
same certainty—the Gates of Hell; and thou shalt open to all those who are
chosen the Gates of Heaven. Thou shalt bind and thou shalt unloosen in my name.
What thou shalt forbid after my death shall be forbidden tomorrow also for that
new humanity which I will find on my return; what thou shalt command shalt be
justly commanded because thou wilt be only repeating in other words what I have
told and taught thee. Thou shalt be, in thy person and in that of thy legitimate
heirs, the shepherd of the interregnum, the temporary and provisional guide who
shalt prepare, together with comrades obedient to thee, the Kingdom of God and
of Love.”
"In requital for this revelation and for this promise I lay on you
a hard command: to keep silence; for the present you must tell no one who I am.
My day is near, but has not yet come; you will be witness to events which you
do not expect, which will even be the contrary of what you expect. I know the
hour in which I shall speak and in which you shall speak. And when we break our
silence, my cry and your cry shall be heard in the most distant realms of
Heaven and Earth." (Matt. 16:20)
No comments:
Post a Comment