Sorry that this posting might have seemed late to you, but on Sundays I want to wait until I've gone to church, and hear what the priest or deacon has to say about the liturgy for the day.

It's the second day of this Solemnity, and it looks like it is to kick off a "Pauline Year". See this article about it, if you are interested: Opening Pauline Year, Pope calls faithful to listen to and follow St. Paul in today's world

Well, lets get straight to the readings. We've got a lot today.

First Reading: Acts 12:1-11

Bad King Herod starts arresting Christians, kills James, and finds that this sort of persecution is politically advantageous to him. So he goes and gets himself the known leader, Peter, and places him under heavy guard, with the intention of presenting him to the people after Passover. Here's the cool part of the story: The Church starts praying "fervently" for him, and he gets literally rescued by angels. They wake him up, as he's sleeping between two guards. They remove the chains from his hands, get him his clothes, and walk him out a door that was secured with two chains. Peter just goes along and doesn't question anything, because he assumes that he is having a vision. He's just amiably going along, as if he's in an especially good dream. Once he's in the alley, the angel leaves him, and Peter finally has his "Holy Cow" moment. He exclaims that yes, God really did just send him some rescue angels, and what he thought of as inevitable was not going to happen. It just seems to me that this story is demonstrating just how important God's plan for Peter was. If Peter were to be executed before his time, no one else was as uniquely qualified to take the young Christian Church were it needed to start. So, God kept Peter safe. Nice.

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18

This reading has always made me have a special affection for Paul. This was a guy who was confidant beyond belief. He made these kind of crazy statements, because he knew that it was true. You can see in this reading why he got into fights with everybody, including Peter. In the homily today, that was the thing that really jumped out at me. Paul fought with EVERYBODY, yet he, along with Peter, formed Christianity. I love that the Church was built by these two guys that couldn't agree on much, and really may not have liked each other much either. But they had a common goal, and a common love for God, and they managed to work out the methods. I know that this wasn't that much about the reading, but it's what I've been thinking about since church this morning, and it had to come out some where.

And the gospel: Matthew 16:13-19

In this reading, Jesus and the disciples are in Caesarea Philippi. Jesus is trying to point out that not only does Peter know who he is, but that he has that knowledge only revelation through god. The rest of this reading seems to deal with Peter's place and authority in the Church that will form. This is what the guys from the New American Bible have to say about that: (Once more, WAY better than I could put it)

You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church: the Aramaic word kepa - meaning rock and transliterated into Greek as Kephas is the name by which Peter is called in the Pauline letters (1 Cor 1:12; 3:22; 9:5; 15:4; Gal 1:18; 2:9, 11, 14) except in Gal 2:7-8 ("Peter"). It is translated as Petros ("Peter") in John 1:42. The presumed original Aramaic of Jesus' statement would have been, in English, "You are the Rock (Kepa) and upon this rock (kepa) I will build my church." The Greek text probably means the same, for the difference in gender between the masculine noun petros, the disciple's new name, and the feminine noun petra (rock) may be due simply to the unsuitability of using a feminine noun as the proper name of a male. Although the two words were generally used with slightly different nuances, they were also used interchangeably with the same meaning, "rock." Church: this word (Greek ekklesia) occurs in the gospels only here and in Matthew 18:17 (twice). There are several possibilities for an Aramaic original. Jesus' church means the community that he will gather and that, like a building, will have Peter as its solid foundation. That function of Peter consists in his being witness to Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God. The gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it: the netherworld (Greek Hades, the abode of the dead) is conceived of as a walled city whose gates will not close in upon the church of Jesus, i.e., it will not be overcome by the power of death.

The keys to the kingdom of heaven: the image of the keys is probably drawn from Isaiah 22:15-25 where Eliakim, who succeeds Shebnah as master of the palace, is given "the key of the house of David," which he authoritatively "opens" and "shuts" (Isaiah 22:22). Whatever you bind . . . loosed in heaven: there are many instances in rabbinic literature of the binding-loosing imagery. Of the several meanings given there to the metaphor, two are of special importance here: the giving of authoritative teaching, and the lifting or imposing of the ban of excommunication. It is disputed whether the image of the keys and that of binding and loosing are different metaphors meaning the same thing. In any case, the promise of the keys is given to Peter alone. In Matthew 18:18 all the disciples are given the power of binding and loosing, but the context of that verse suggests that there the power of excommunication alone is intended. That the keys are those to the kingdom of heaven and that Peter's exercise of authority in the church on earth will be confirmed in heaven show an intimate connection between, but not an identification of, the church and the kingdom of heaven.

News story number one is a continuation of a story from Thursday, the 26: The Forum: What next for the Vatican-SSPX talks?

News story number two is also a continuation from Thursday, I wonder how this will develop all over the world? Priests barred from candidate donations