Saint of the day for February 22: the history of the chair of St. Peter
This feast commemorates Christ's choice of Peter to sit in his place as the servant-authority of the whole Church.
After the "lost weekend" of pain, doubt and torment, Peter listens to the Good News. The angels on the tomb say to Magdalene: “The Lord is risen! Go and tell his disciples and Peter “. Giovanni relates that when he and Peter ran to the tomb, the younger overtook the old, then waited for him. Peter walked in, saw the wrappers on the floor, the headdress rolled up in one place by itself. John saw and believed. But he adds a reminder: "... they have not yet understood the Scripture that was to rise from the dead" (John 20: 9). They went home. There the idea that was slowly exploding and impossible became a reality. Jesus appeared to them as they waited fearfully behind closed doors. “Peace be with you,” he said (John 20: 21b), and they rejoiced.
The Pentecost event completed Peter's experience of the risen Christ. "... they were all filled with the Holy Spirit " (Acts 2: 4a) and began to express themselves in foreign languages and make bold claims as the Spirit prompted them.
Only then will Peter be able to fulfill the task that Jesus had entrusted to him: “… [Once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32). Immediately become the spokesperson of the Twelve on their experience of the Holy Spirit - in front of the civil authorities who wanted to cancel their preaching, before the Council of Jerusalem, for the community in the problem of Ananias and Sapphira. He is the first to preach the Good News to the Gentiles. The healing power of Jesus in him is well attested: the resurrection of Tabitha from the dead, the healing of the crippled beggar. People take the sick into the streets so that when Peter is past his shadow could fall on them. Even a saint encounters difficulties in the Christian life. When Peter stopped eating with Gentile converts because he did not want to hurt the sensitivity of Jewish Christians, Paul says: "... I opposed him because he was clearly wrong ... they were not on the right path in line with the truth of the Gospel ..." (Galatians 2: 11b, 14a).
At the end of John's Gospel, Jesus says to Peter: “Most assuredly I tell you that when you were younger you dressed and went wherever you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will clothe you and lead you where you do not want ”(John 21:18). What Jesus said indicated the kind of death with which Peter was to glorify God. On the Vatican Hill, in Rome, during the reign of Nero, Peter glorified his Lord with the death of a martyr, probably in the company of many Christians. Second-century Christians built a small memorial over his burial site. In the XNUMXth century the emperor Constantine had a basilica built, which was replaced in the XNUMXth century.
Reflection: Like the chairman of the committee, this chair refers to the occupant, not the furniture. Its first occupant stumbled a little, denying Jesus three times and hesitating to welcome the Gentiles into the new Church. Some of its later occupants have also stumbled a little, sometimes even scandalously failed. As individuals, we may sometimes think that one particular pope has let us down. However, the office persists as a sign of the long tradition we hold dear and as a focal point for the universal Church.