Peter, by a special grace of God, "understood" the messianic and divine condition of Jesus.For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven". Based on this, Jesus makes Peter - and his successors the Popes - the rock of the Church, giving them the power to bind and loose and promising them that their decisions will be confirmed in heaven. It is as if Our Lord said: "The special sensitivity you showed in recognizing me as Messiah and Son of God is granted to you as part of your mission, of your function, as Pope"..
Discernment and bonding go together in the Pope. By the special grace he receives from God to discern, he can then bind. Because he sees so clearly, with the light of heaven, he is better able to bind or unbind. I think of a craftsman who needs good eyesight to tie the threads of an object he is making. He needs to see well to be able to do so. As Peter sees well with the light of heaven, heaven confirms his decisions.
This is what we celebrate in today's beautiful feast: the special assistance that God in Christ promised Peter, an assistance that will endure throughout history.
The Church is too divine a project for God to allow human error to spoil it. Certainly, Popes can be fallible in their lives or even make errors of judgment. Immediately after this episode, Peter tries to prevent Jesus from going through his Passion and later cowardly denies his Lord three times. Peter, as a man, may be more of a "man" than a "man".skandalon"a stone of stumbling, than a rock. But the papacy is always a rock, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
The Popes need our prayers, as we see in today's first reading. The whole Church prays for Peter's release, after Herod had him arrested for execution. Peter, who binds and looses, was bound, but was loosed by the united prayer of the Church. In a mysterious way, we support the Pope in his office, we help him to bind and unbind. But let us not forget St. Paul. There is a strong tradition of unity between these two great apostles. Although on one occasion Paul rightly corrected Peter (cf. Gal 2:11-14), the latter took it well and later refers to Paul as "our dear brother" (2 Pet 3:15). Christian art has often depicted the "embrace" between the two, and this joint feast is a further sign of their unity. Today's second reading also shows Paul "bound": imprisoned and in chains, he foresees his imminent death. But he is aware of God's protection: "But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed... The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed.". The apostles of the Church may be bound physically, but not spiritually, for as Paul says earlier in the same letter "the word of God is not in chains". (2 Tim 2:9).
