The fourth vow 2: Biblical and historical foundations

The Church as Jesus set it up
While studying the vow of Obedience we have seen that Jesus built a Church which was a community of which he was the head. During the three years with them, Jesus often relates to Peter in a special way. Peter is the only one to whom he changed the name (from Simon to Peter, which means “rock”), he uses the boat of Peter to preach, to Peter he shows the miraculous catching of fish, Peter is the one called to walk on the water, to him he says “I will make you a fisher of men”; he sends him to catch the fish with the coin in the mouth; several times Peter speaks in the name of the others. In a few occasions Jesus chooses only three apostles to come along with him (Transfiguration, resurrection of a young girl, prayer in the Gethsemane, etc), Peter is always one of them.

There are three episodes particularly important regarding the relationship between Jesus and Peter.

The faith declaration at Caesarea Philippi (Mt 16,17-20). After Peter declared that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus replied to him: “Blessed are you Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. And I tell you: you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will never prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, whatever you will bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”.
Here we see that the promise is done to Peter alone and not to the other 11 apostles. At the same time it would be nonsense to give such important promise only for the short time of Peter’s life. It is more sensible to think that such power is given to all of Peter’s successors.

The last supper (Lk 22:31-32). During the Last Supper, Jesus predicts that the apostles will abandon him and Peter even denies him. In that occasion Jesus says: “Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you (singular) that your own faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers”.
Here again we see that the temptation will hit all of the apostles, but the promise of prayers and the duty of helping the others is given to Peter only.

After the Resurrection at the lake of Genesareth (Jn 21:15-19). In this episode we have another miraculous catching of fish. After that Jesus speaks to Peter and asks him 3 times: “Do you love me more than the others?” after the positive reply of Peter he adds: “take care of my flock”.

From these three episodes we see the important role given by Jesus to Peter inside of the newly formed Church. It is interesting to note that the passages are spread all through the new Testament and not just present in one of the Gospels.



The Pope in the NT and the early Church.
In the book of the Acts of the Apostles we see that Peter is the one now in charge. Let us not forget that Mary, the mother of Jesus was still alive and part of the group, so was James, cousin of Jesus and now Bishop of Jerusalem, and alive were also John, the beloved disciple and Mark and Luke the evangelists. All of these would have had enough reasons and skills to be the one in charge. Instead we see that Peter is the one in charge.

One interesting thing is the fact that by the end of the first century, the people of Corinth have some doubts about their faith. They look for clarifications and ask Clement, the Bishop of Rome and third successor of Peter, in spite the fact that St John was still alive in Ephesus, and so was Luke whom they knew well as the secretary of St. Paul. From this we can deduct that after Peter’s death, the new leader of the Church was not an evangelist or an apostle but the bishop of Rome.

All through history we see the important role played by the Bishops of Rome, and Rome has always been considered the centre of Christianity, even when the city of Byzantium (Constantinopolis) was much more powerful and rich.