Click here to view this Sunday’s readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/082408.shtmlToday’s second reading provides us with the important question for our reflection: “Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? Or who has given the Lord anything that he may be repaid?” The answer to these questions is the same: no one. No human being can fully know the mind of God. We seek to know his will through prayer, study of the Sacred Scriptures, and the teaching of the Church. Yet, we will never fully know God’s mind, as it is infinite and we are finite. What is more, we are not in the position to counsel God; that would be reversing the relationship. It is we who need his counsel. And none of us has given God anything that deserves repayment to us by God. God owes us nothing; we owe God everything.
The first reading presents us with the promise of God to the Davidic kings of Israel. God’s authority will be with them. They will have the keys to the kingdom that only the king is able to use. Here we have to understand the keys as being symbols of absolute authority over a city. The keys would have been used to lock and unlock the city gates that allowed people in or kept people out. Only the king had such absolute authority over the fate of another human being, and the king is to judge such things based on the wisdom God gives him.
In the Gospel reading we revisit the story of Jesus handing over authority over the Church to Peter. Here, Jesus uses the symbol of the keys from the first reading to grant such authority. Yet, there is an important difference in this conferral from that of the first reading. Here, Peter has authority to bind and loose on earth so that such a binding occurs in heaven as well. What is more, such a binding and loosing has to do with the content of revelation – “whatever”- not the fate of persons - “whoever”. Peter’s authority is not temporal like the kings of Israel. Instead, his authority is spiritual and applies to things of heaven.
Authority can be a very dangerous thing in the hands of the wrong person. Our acceptance of authority in another can also be a dangerous thing. The danger lies in forgetting where this authority originates. God alone grants authority and He alone is ultimate wisdom. As long as we maintain such a balance, our acceptance of authority in humans is safe. Let us accept this authority with docility, knowing that God alone is our counselor and king.
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