21A   Isaiah 22:19-23.  Shebna was the king’s steward who used his position for his own personal gain at the expense of others who were not in a position to defend themselves.  Yahweh has Isaiah deliver his message that Shebna is to be replaced by Eliakim who will use his authority, represented by the keys, as steward to faithfully serve the king and the kingdom.

Matthew 16:13-20.  Jesus asks who do people say the Son of Man is. The replies are that people think he is one of the many important Jewish religious figures of the past, but Peter responds, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus comments that the answer Peter has given came to him from God and not any human source.  All good and true things of any kind radically, though often remotely, come from God, the only source of what is genuinely good and true.  Jesus says, “You are Peter (which name means rock), and upon this rock I will build my church,” and he guarantees that “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” The guarantee that the Church will prevail until the end of time is not based on Peter’s strength or wisdom but on God’s.  Jesus continues, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  The giving of authority to the Church assumes that the power to bind or to loose is exercised under the supremacy of God’s Will.  Some claim that this authority was given personally to Peter only.  However, that would mean that Jesus is saying he will build his church on a man who is dead and, if only he has the authority to lead the church, therefore on an authority which is dead.  To the contrary Jesus has given the authority, symbolized by the keys, to whoever takes the position of authority that Jesus has established over his church.  The Church, with pope, who now has the keys, as its leader, is the steward to the king who is Jesus.  Peter just happened to be the first person to hold that position of authority that we call the papacy.  Because Peter, as the first pope, has been given the visible authority to lead the Church on earth under the spiritual guidance of God, Jesus says to Peter in Jn. 21: 15c, 16c, 17c, “Feed my lambs;”  “Tend my sheep;”  “Feed my sheep.”

Jesus tells his disciples “to tell no one that he was the Christ.”  To make the claim to be Messiah to people not properly prepared or disposed in a timely way would only create barriers to their believing in him.

Romans 11:33-36.  Oh! How magnificent is our God!  Oh! How spectacular!  “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” “How unsearchable his ways!”  His ways are forever and ever beyond our minds!  We are finite; He, infinite!  He is God; we are not!  We glory in the God who is our God, over us, OUR GOD OVER US, LOVING US!  “From him and through him and for him are all things.  To him be glory forever. Amen.”  When we give praise and adoration, we come to him mostly from our heart and little from our mind.  It is the pouring out of our hearts and with little use of the grasping, comprehension and understanding by our minds.  We do not so much take hold of him but we rejoice that he takes a hold of us through his omnipotence!