Harmony
Implies Different Notes
FRIDAY,
Easter week seven: May 13, 2016
The Responsorial Psalm invites us to
confidence: “The Lord has set his throne
in heaven” (Psalm 103).
Acts 25: 13-21 show how God works through events
to fulfill his own plan. King Agrippa said that Paul “could have been set free
if he had not appealed to the emperor.” But God’s plan was for Paul to go to
Rome and bear witness there. Why?
It may
have been so that Peter and Paul would both die there. Peter and Paul could
have divided the early Church. Peter had the “primacy” of juridical authority
in the Church, the “keys of the kingdom.” He was the protos, the “first” among the historical group Jesus had gathered
around him during his earthly ministry. But Paul had the authority of his
direct call and commission from the risen Jesus to evangelize the Gentiles (Acts 26:16-18). He was raised up:
by the Spirit of the risen Lord to bear
witness above all to the primacy of an inward communion of faith and love, the
perpetually new work of the Spirit…. There we have what we might call ‘the
primacy of Paul.’ It was charismatic rather than institutional. Paul bore
witness to the absolute, radical authority of the Word over everything and
everyone…. [His] unique calling shows how God’s grace transcends every
institution.
Here
were two courses set for collision. But Peter and Paul remained united and died
in communion with each other in the same city:
The two ‘primacies’ met at Rome,
intermingling in the blood of martyrdom. There the ‘glorious witnesses’ welded
into one communion the leadership of the protos
[Peter] and the authority of the prophet [Paul]. Hence the privilege of this
local church, and… her special calling: the communion
of the witness of Peter and that of Paul which had been entrusted to her —
engraved in her, so that she became the ‘living memory’ among all the churches.
Her bishop would have the responsibility of becoming guardian of and spokesman
for all that is implied by such a privilege and calling. 1
That is
why the bishop of the church in Rome inherits Peter’s function of keeping the whole
Church united, faithful to the unity to which their death bore witness. The
pope must listen to the voice of the Spirit in the prophets, and the prophets
must listen to the voice of his authority.
In John 21: 15-19 Jesus gives to Peter,
and thus to every bishop and member of the Church, the Great Commandment of
pastoral ministry: “Feed my sheep.”
The goal that guides the interpretation and application of every rule and
policy in the Church must be to nourish and nurture the flock, to lead them to
the life-giving pastures of Christ’s words and sacraments. Above all, pastors
should fear the sin of denying the Eucharist
to anyone unnecessarily. The words of Jesus are clear: “If you love me, feed my sheep.”
1J. M. R.
Tillard, O.P., The Bishop of Rome, Glazier,
Inc., 1986, pages 74-117.
Initiative: Be a prophet like
Paul: preserve the “unity of the Spirit” with the Church and bishops.
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