“And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)
During his homily this morning, the priest mentioned that Jesus said, I will build, not that I have built my church upon this rock. This is because the Church is continually being built. We are building the Church. Jesus chose Peter to be the instrument by which He opened heaven to the world. Peter, the man who would deny Jesus three times, was given the keys to the kingdom! Saul is another good example of how the Holy Spirit can transform us. Saul didn’t want to merely contain Christianity; he wanted to rid the earth of Christianity and its followers. He sought out to arrest Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment. But the Holy Spirit is able to convert even the hardest of hearts. Saul not only became a Christian, but he was a powerful evangelist who proclaimed Christ more clearly and powerfully than anyone had previously done in Damascus. We are also called to evangelize; to spread the Good News in our homes, our places of work, our schools and with each person that God places in our lives each day.
Every time we gather for Mass, the Church is living out what Christ commanded himself, to eat my flesh and drink my blood. “The Church does not cease to listen to his words. She rereads them continually. With the greatest devotion she reconstructs every detail of his life. It is his life that speaks, his humanity, his fidelity to the truth, his all-embracing love.” (Blessed John Paul II) Through the Sacrifice of the Mass our sins are forgiven, we are nourished with the words of Christ; we hear how we are to live out our lives. We are nourished with the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ. And we are sent forth to love and serve the Lord; to build up the Church.
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