Sunday Gospel Reflection, August 23, 2026: I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven...

I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven…
How do we gain access to the Lord? 

    In the time of the prophet Isaiah, anyone who wanted access to the king needed to go through an official known as the master of the palace who was caretaker for the people and a conduit of information from the people to the king. But Isaiah writes that Shebna, entrusted with this role, has failed in his duty. Because Shebna has not served the needs of either the king or the people, the Lord will place the key of the House of David on another, one who will ostensibly do a better of job of facilitating the people’s access to their king. 

    The key of which Jesus speaks in Matthew’s Gospel also involves access, though of another sort. When Jesus asks his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is?, Peter’s proclamation is in fact God’s revelation: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus is God’s revelation; Jesus is also the key that will restore humankind’s access to God through his death and rising. When Jesus gives Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven, Peter and his fellow disciples now have a firm foundation from which to facilitate people’s access to God: the authority to teach and preach and bring the power of God’s love to bear on the world. 

    The Church is founded upon the revelation of God through his Son Jesus. Throughout the centuries, the Church has sought to reveal God to the world, and that revelation depends on what knowledge is loosed and what knowledge is bound on earth. And often, we think we have gathered all we need to know about God. But, as Paul reminds the Romans, God is profoundly beyond our comprehension: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways! 

    Yet God does reveal himself to us if we are open to listening and to participating in the Eucharist that is our most profound revelation of the living Christ among us, a truth we see by faith, the action of God in union with the Spirit and in union with Christ. The Mass itself is that revelation, a celebration of our union with him, and good reason to, as Psalm 138 exhorts us, give thanks to you, O Lord, with all our hearts and worship at God’s holy temple! We may not be able to plumb the depth of the riches of God, but surely we can open to his revelation among us, daily!

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture Class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com