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The unmovable rock
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June 30, 2023
There is nothing more foundational to redeemed humanity than the priesthood; yet, these days, it seems ready to fall. As a great mountain balanced on the head of a needle, only a miracle seems to hold it upright. It is no small wonder that the needle has not already been crushed. And so, what do we find there, holding up this mountain? And why is it so small? The wind of false doctrine could not blow down the mountain, but the sea has been battering its shores all around. The waves have eroded the foundation; yet the mountain stands. It stands upon a slender rock, needle thin, diamond strong, the rock of faith—the faith of mothers and fathers, and their children; the faith held like the beads of a rosary, passed from finger to finger, and its words, lisped from lips nearly too young to speak, halting and unsure of the words, but somehow the surer of their meaning; the faith still sung in eloquence of voice and music, in lungs which have not tired, which have not wearied, because they sing something as strange as the world could hope for: A redeemed relationship with God, who is their rock, their peter, their priest.
Yes, when a wholesome culture, which is like an on-ramp to this mountain of redemption, is eroded like our South Louisiana coastline, the needle-thin faith of believers still holds the church aloft. After all, Christ promised that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” But the fact that it will not fall does not mean we can be complacent. For many see the church, like Christ on the cross, and say: “There is no future for them; let us tear down this mountain.” Our faith knows something different, but it must say what it knows! And so those of us who are tasked with proclaiming the faith, which is all of us, since we are all a priestly people (although we exercise that priesthood in different ways in the church and in the world), ought to be concerned with building up the soil at the base of this mountain, lest people be kept from God.
So how do we do that? We must understand that the church is not a magical floating mountain, which exists apart from human cooperation; that unmovable rock is Peter, a person, the martyr, who died testifying to Jesus, and upon whom Christ said He would build his church. Yet Peter’s faith cannot simply be proclaimed; it must be lived.
St. Peter fervently set to work shoring up the base of the mountain, that base which is the individual Christians who are the meeting point between the mountain (Christ and his church) and the world. Letters written by 1st and 2nd Peter are great examples of this. So, I will conclude with his inspired words from 1 Peter 2:4-6, which tell all Christians to imitate Christ by offering themselves as Christ did, as priests: “Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it says in Scripture: ‘... whoever believes in (this stone) shall not be put to shame.’” Thus will the faith of the young and old continue in its song, and that song will be heard, and grow, while the waves will grow quiet, for even they obey the Word of God, and listen to his song.