The Rock of Faith
“Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.”
It's been coming up in the readings and homilies the last couple of weeks, so I wanted to find a nice juicy and subversive image drawing attention to the irony that it was Peter's wavering and ambivalent oligopistis (little-faith) on which the Church was founded. But that concept is understandably a bit difficult to illustrate. And I found myself drawn to meditating on this landmark in the Holy Land.
This ancient stone, ensconced within the Franciscan Church of the Primacy of Peter in Tabgha, purportedly bears silent witness to a pivotal moment of reconciliation. Here, following his Resurrection, Jesus met his disciples by the Sea of Galilee, cooking fish over a charcoal fire on this rock. It was by this lakeshore that Peter first left his nets to follow Christ. And it was here, after abandoning Jesus in his hour of need, that Peter was reinstated - commissioned not only to feed Christ's sheep, but to strengthen his brothers.
The irony does not escape us. Peter, who would betray and deny Jesus three times before the cock crowed, was named the Rock upon which Christ would build his Church. Peter was as solid as shifting sand, cracking under pressure like brittle stone. Yet it was upon this flawed foundation that Christ established His Body. Not Peter's greatness, but his failure. Not Peter's sturdiness, but his faithlessness. Not the site of Peter's heroic confession, but the site of his last "come to Jesus" meeting, where he owned up to his betrayal before this breakfast table set and spread out on the earth by our Lord.
Centuries later, the Mensa Christi rests among ruins, vestiges of the tragedy of history, and the cyclic shattering of Christian unity. For a while, it was one of the last standing 4th C churches in the Holy Land, but it finally succumbed to the vicissitudes of history in the 1230s. From the 1930s, it's been encased in a Franciscan monument ... but in 2130? 2230? 3030? Won't this church -- yet another little mini-Babel -- just be another to evaporate from the landscape leaving only the faintest of impressions on the landscape, like all the rest?
But neither Peter’s puny faith and quick-sinking feet of clay, nor the checkered history of the Church, nor the fraying fabric of our own circumstance-tattered and lifewind-beaten belief can diminish the purposes of the One who calls us. If Christ’s purposes could prevail through fragile Peter -- and if they prevail again and again through generational renewals of faith -- might they not prevail also in you and me?
Here at the sea's edge, Christ renewed Peter's call. And here, once more, He renews our own. May this unbroken stone, upon which this physical church is built, remind us that we stand not upon our resolve but upon the steadfastness of Christ. Though faith may falter, His purpose remains. On this rock Christ builds His church still.
You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
— Matthew 16:18
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Texts for This Week
Prayer
Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds!
This classic hymn by John Newton beautifully resonates with the Scriptures for this week, and their themes of Christ as the solid Rock and sure foundation. The opening stanzas portray Christ as the soothing balm for all our wounds and sorrows, aligning with the Gospel's depiction of Jesus reinstating and commissioning Peter after his denials. Despite Peter's failures, Christ remains his faithful friend and shepherd.
The turning point comes in the third stanza, where Christ is specifically called the "Rock on which I build." This directly echoes the Gospel's declaration of Christ building his church on Peter, the Rock. It also connects to the Isaiah and Psalms passages about God as a foundation and refuge.
The hymn then expands on Christ's roles and praises his name. This parallels the Gospel's revelation of Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah and Son of God. The new arrangement by Harvest Collective adds a reverent yet contemporary spirit to this proclamation.
Eusebius on the Rock of Faith
The Lord also thundered out of heaven, and the Most High gave forth his voice: hailstones, and coals of fire. He sent out his arrows and scattered them; he cast forth lightning and destroyed them. The springs of water were seen, and the foundations of the world were uncovered, at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blasting of the breath of your displeasure. — Psalm 18:14-16
By “the foundations of the world,” we understand the strength of God’s wisdom, by which He first established the order of the universe, and then founded the world itself – a world that will not be shaken. You will not err from the truth if you take “the world” to mean the Church of God, and its “foundation” to be, first, that unspeakably solid Rock on which it is founded, Christ, as Scripture says: “Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). The Apostle indicates the same, saying Christ is the only foundation that can be laid (1 Corinthians 3:11).
After Christ, the foundations of the Church are the words of the prophets and apostles, as the Apostle says: “Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20). These foundations have been laid bare because the enemies who once darkened our minds have been routed by God’s arrows and scattered by the Lord’s rebuke.
Now that we have been saved from these enemies and can see clearly, we have seen the depths of the sea and looked upon the foundations of the world. This has happened in our time in many parts of the world.
