Chapter 20 – The Kingdom

Posted on 01/19/2019 by Dick Landkamer

Chapter 20: The Kingdom

  1. Introduction
    • The Tendency to Ignore the Apostles
      • The modern tendency to ignore the devil is paralleled by the tendency to ignore the Apostles (279-3).
      • This tendency “badly falsifies Our Lord’s plan for the continuation of His work upon earth,” for He placed great importance upon what He would do to the Devil, and He placed great importance upon what He would do through the Apostles (280-1).
      • The following passage from John’s Gospel clearly shows that the Apostles were being prepared for some great thing (280-2):
        • “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you” (Jn 15:15-16)
        • Consider the wording:
          • They are no longer to be called His servants, because servants do not know what their master is doing.
          • The Apostles know what the master is doing because all that has been made known to the Son by the Father, the Son has made known to the Apostles.
          • They did not choose to be His companions. Rather, they accepted His call; He chose them.
          • They were appointed to bear fruit that would “abide,” “last,” “remain.”
      • We will not understand His plan for mankind unless we recognize the Apostles’ place in the plan (280-2).
  2. The Function of the Apostles
    • God’s Plan for Mankind
      • Two elements dominate God’s plan for mankind: “the coming of the Kingdom . . . [and] the spiritual shaping of men’s souls by the gifts of truth and life that He brings” (280-3).
      • When all of the “kingdom” verses found in the Gospels are examined, we readily conclude that “He was founding a kingdom in which those who believed in Him should receive truth and life” (281-1).
        • At the Incarnation, the angel Gabriel said to Mary: “Of his kingdom there will be no end” (Lk 1:33).
        • At the Last Supper: “I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Lk 22:29-30).
          • “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you;” (Jn 6:53).
        • The Jews accusing Jesus before Pilate: “We found this man perverting our nation, and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ a king” (Lk 23:2).
        • Jesus answering Pilate: “’My kingdom is not of this world.’ So Pilate said to him, ‘Then you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth’” (Jn 18:37).
      • The kingdom and the gifts are two sides of the same coin. Thus, in His preparation of the Apostles, He sometimes speaks in terms of the gifts, and sometimes in terms of the kingdom (281-2).
        • “I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom” (Lk 22:29).
      • All of us are intended to enter the kingdom as citizens. The Apostles, however, were meant to be more than citizens; they were meant to be rulers, for the kingdom is assigned to them. Consider this verse:
        • “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (Jn 20:21).
        • How did the Father send Him? With all authority:
          • “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’” (Mt 28:18).
        • Consequently, the Apostles were sent with that same authority.
      • With Christ the King, the overarching ruler of the kingdom, as their model, who came “not to be served but to serve” (Mt 20:28), the rulers of His kingdom are, likewise, to serve the members of the kingdom (281-2).
      • He equips the Apostles to serve in the manner that He served by dispensing Truth (the Word) and the supernatural Life (i.e., sanctifying grace via the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist) for all who tread the Way to the Father (281-2).
        • They may, in the religious sphere, require obedience to their commands, so as to preserve the unity of the kingdom and the integrity of the revelation entrusted to them, but “this is simply the background to service” (281-2).
      • There must be a continuance in the dispensing of the gifts for all succeeding generations, because the gifts are needed by everyone in every generation, and the nature of the gifts of Truth and Life is such that they must be received by each individual (281-2).
      • There is also a need for the continuance of the sacrifice of Jesus because the possession of the gifts is sustained by the power of the Holy Eucharist (281-2).
        • “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (Jn 6:53).
      • Hence, in addition to making the Apostles teachers and minsters of the sacraments, Jesus also made them priests, and the work of a priest is to offer sacrifice (282-2).
        • “You were slain and by your blood did ransom men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth” (Rev 5:9-10).
  3. Preparation of the Apostles
    • Preparation for the dispensing of Truth
      • During the three-year period of Jesus’ public life, the Apostles watched Him teach and received special instruction in private (282-2).
        • “He did not speak to [the crowds] without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything” (Mk 4:34).
        • “He said, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand’” (Lk 8:10; also see Mk 4:10-11).
      • The assistance of the Holy Spirit was promised to the Apostles at the Last Supper (282-2).
        • “But when the Counselor [Holy Spirit] comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness to me” (Jn 15:26).
      • After the Resurrection, He gave them insight into the Scriptures (282-2).
        • “Then He opened their minds to understand the scriptures” (Lk 24:45).
    • Preparation for the Dispensing of the Supernatural Life
      • He sent them out to baptize, so that we could be born into the supernatural life (282-3).
        • “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:19-20)
        • “Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples” (Jn 4:2).
        • This is most likely a reference to the continuation of John’s baptism of repentance, “for as yet the Spirit had not been given”:
          • “Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (Jn 7:39).
      • He gave them the power to change bread and wine into His body and blood, so as to sustain the supernatural life in us (282-3).
        • “Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me’” (Lk 22:14).
        • “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you do not eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, you have no life in you” (Jn 6:53).
      • He gave them the power to forgive sins, so as to restore to the supernatural life those who lose it after baptism (282-3).
        • “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (Jn 20:23).
    • The Significance of This Preparation
      • This kind of preparation for the dispensing of gifts was too vast to think it was only intended for the first generation of Christians (282-3).
      • In fact, this preparation of the Apostles for the dispensing of the gifts of Truth and Life was the establishment of the framework of His Kingdom (283-1), a kingdom of which there would be no end.
        • “He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Lk 1:33).
      • The Apostles would appoint successors, and those successors would in turn appoint their own successors, and this process would continue unbroken to the end of time.
      • Note that the coming and going of these successive waves of men “would not matter, since it is the one Christ operating through all of them” (283-1).
        • Pope St. Clement, third successor of St. Peter (d. 97 AD): “Our Apostles knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would be dissensions over the title of bishop. In their full foreknowledge of this, therefore, they proceeded to appoint the ministers I spoke of, and they went on to add an instruction that if these should fall asleep, other accredited persons should succeed them in their office” (“First Epistle to the Corinthians,” par. 44, ca. 96 AD).
        • St. Irenaeus of Lyons (d. ca. 202 AD): “Since, however, it would be very tedious, in such a volume as this, to reckon up the successions of all the Churches, we do put to confusion all those who, in whatever manner . . . assemble in unauthorized meetings by indicating that tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its preeminent authority, that is, the faithful everywhere, inasmuch as the tradition has been preserved continuously by those [faithful men] who exist everywhere” (“Against Heresies,” III, iii, 2).
          • Irenaeus goes on to the list all the successors of Peter up to his own time in section 3 of the same chapter: “Linus . . . Anacletus . . . Clement . . . Evaristus . . . Alexander . . . Sixtus . . . Telephorus . . . Hyginus . . . Pius . . . Anicetus . . . Soter . . . Eleutherius does now, in the twelfth place from the apostles, hold the inheritance of the episcopate [of Rome].
        • Of Clement, the third successor of Peter, Irenaeus writes: “This man, as he had seen the blessed apostles, and had been conversant with them, might be said to have the preaching of the apostles still echoing [in his ears], and their traditions before his eyes” (“Against Heresies,” III, iii).
      • The Apostles and their successors would only be the instruments through whom Christ worked; they needed to have the powers fully actualized by the coming of the Holy Spirit (283-2).
        • Jesus, in the company of the Apostles and other disciples (it cannot be determined if this was intended for the Apostles alone – Acts 1:2, 8 would imply that it was): “And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high” (Lk 24:49).
        • Jesus, speaking to the Apostles (per Acts 1:2): “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
      • After saying this, He ascended into heaven. The apostles and other disciples returned to Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy Spirit, which is described in Acts 2.
    • Excursus: The Apostolic Office
      • The Apostles clearly recognized their ministry as something set apart from the other disciples and the other disciples recognized it as well. This can be readily seen in the first chapter of Acts where Mathias was chosen to take the place of Judas.
      • “In those days Peter stood up among the brethren (the company of persons was in all about a hundred and twenty) . . .” (Acts 1:15).
      • “[Judas] was numbered among us [i.e., the twelve], and was allotted his share in this ministry” (Acts 1:17).
      • “Lord . . . show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside” (Acts 1:24-25).
        • These two verses are universally translated with the demonstrative pronoun “this”; a demonstrative pronoun emphasizes some specific thing.
      • In this case, the thing of emphasis is the ministry. Though he has been a disciple of Jesus since the time of the Baptism of the Lord (Acts 1:22), Mathias is elected to “this ministry” because it was something above and beyond the role of the disciples, in general.
      • As in the case of the Apostles, Mathias had to be appointed to “this ministry”; he could not choose it on his own.
        • One may argue that it was the community that elected Matthias, not merely the Apostles themselves. The passage does not clearly say whether the lots were cast only by the Apostles or by the whole community. The former is more likely, considering the number of people present. Either way, what is important about this passage is that Matthias was called by an Apostle, and the casting of lots was not done apart from the Apostles.
        • There are several references to Apostolic succession in the New Testament (e.g., 1 Tim 4:14, 1 Tim 5:22, 2 Tim 1:16, Heb 6:1-2), but none of them speak of succession taking place without the direct approval of an Apostle. There is no example of apostolic succession through a community election that does not include an Apostle.
      • The “other” disciples saw “this ministry” in the same way as the Apostles saw it, for there was no objection to Peter’s call for the election of a replacement for Judas.
        • “The company of those who believed were of one heart and soul” (Acts 4:32).
        • “They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42).
      • “This ministry” was the “ministry of the Word”
        • “[The narrative of Jesus’ ministry was] delivered to us [including Luke] by those [does not include Luke] who from the beginning [i.e., the Apostles] were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word” (Lk 1:2).
        • “[Peter said] we [i.e., the Twelve, 6:2] will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4).
        • Note that this “ministry of the word” is not a ministry of the Scriptures; rather, it is something greater than that, for the Word is the Son of God:
          • “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14).
          • The Scriptures are merely a written expression of the Word, who is Jesus Christ. The Scriptures themselves are not the Word; rather they communicate the Word.
  4. The Church One and Catholic
    • The Catholic Commission
      • “Our Lord sees His kingdom and speaks of His kingdom with great precision of detail. Just before His Ascension, He said to His Apostles (284-1):
        • “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:18-20).
      • The word “catholic” comes from a Greek word meaning universal, which contains two ideas: the idea of all and the idea of one, which, together, expresses the concept of a unity embracing all (284-2).
      • All what? All nations, all things, all time (284-2)
      • “[This] is not an exaggerated description of the Catholic Church. Not by the wildest exaggeration could it be advanced as a description of any other” (284-2).
    • Life and Truth Leads to the Way
      • He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life gave the Apostles a commission to teach and to baptize (284-3).
        • Their teaching is a communication of Truth (via the Word).
          • As noted above, the Scriptures themselves are not the Word; rather they communicate the Word, Jesus Christ.
        • Their baptizing is a communication of the supernatural Life (via sanctifying grace).
      • The commission is also a communication of the Way. When people come into contact with the ministry of the Apostles and their successors, they come into contact with Jesus, who is the Way, for wherever the Apostles and their successors are, Jesus is there also:
        • “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20).
      • The continuous presence of Christ with His Apostles and their successors give us a double guarantee (285-1):
        • First: A guarantee that what we receive from them is actually coming from Christ working through them; thus it really is Truth and Life, rather than something masquerading as Truth and Life.
          • “After this Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judea; there he remained with them and baptized . . . Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples” (Jn 3:22, 4:2).
        • Second: A guarantee that that when in contact with the Apostles and their successors, we are in contact with Christ Himself.
          • “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Lk 10:16).
    • The Necessity of the Holy Spirit
      • Though Jesus was the Son of God, His human nature still needed the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (285-2).
      • Note the contradiction on this point between 285-2 and 247-1.
        • “As man, He needed the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, not [only] to elevate and sanctify His human nature, but to give the special light and strength it needed for the special things which the Son of God was to do in it” (285-2)
        • “As God, He possessed all things: as man, He needed the indwelling of the Holy Spirit for the elevation of His human nature to the things of God, and for the special mission He was to carry out” (247-1).
        • The contradiction is resolved by adding “only” on 285-2: not [only] to elevate.
      • His need for the Holy Spirit can be seen in that Scripture often speaks of Him as being acted upon by the Holy Spirit (285-2):
        • “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (Acts 10:38).
        • After the Baptism of the Lord: “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil” (Mt 4:1).
        • “[Christ] through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God” (Heb 9:14).
        • “He was taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen” (Acts 1:2).
      • “Now just as the human nature through which He worked upon earth received light and strength from the Holy Spirit, so the human society through which He was to continue to work would need light and strength from the Holy Spirit in order that it might be maintained at the level of what He would use it to do” (286-1).
        • The reason for this lies in the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ, which will be addressed in chapter 22. For now, note how Jesus identifies Himself with the Church in His appearance to Saul (Paul):
          • “Now as he journeyed he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed about him. And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ And he said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting’” (Acts 9:3-6).
        • It follows from this identification that what Christ needed in His human nature, while He lived on earth, would also be needed by that aspect of His body that continues to live on earth, that is, the Church.
    • The Charism of Unity
      • We have already seen that the word “catholic” expresses the concept of a unity embracing all (see 284-2).
      • “Given that the Church was to teach all men all truths and that Christ was to be with it in the teaching, it seems hardly necessary to add that it was to be one Church” (286-2).
      • Jesus speaks of this unity explicitly and powerfully at the Last Supper. After having prayed for the Apostles, He prays for unity of a special nature among those who through their teaching would come to believe in Him (286-2):
        • “I pray not only for them [i.e., the Apostles], but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (Jn 17:20-21).
      • In this prayer He prays that the unity among the members of the Church be “as intense, in the human order, as the unity of Persons within the Blessed Trinity” (286-2). In other words, He prays for a supernatural unity among the members of the Church.
      • Because this unity is supernatural, it cannot come from the members of the Church; it must come from the Holy Spirit. This unity is to be:
        • “Externally visible so that the world could see it and be driven to conclude from it that only the power of God could account for it” (286-2)
        • “So unusual, so miraculous that when the world was to look upon His community and see its oneness it would conclude that the Incarnation had taken place” (Thomas Dubay, “Caring,” p. 37).
      • Cardinal Ratzinger writes that a particular application of this supernatural unity is seen in the Councils of the Catholic Church:
        • “[Church] Councils are based on the principle of moral unanimity, and that in turn does not simply appear as an especially strong majority. It is not consensus that offers a basis for the truth, but the truth that offers [a basis] for consensus: the unanimity of so many people has always been regarded as something that is humanly impossible. Whenever it occurs, this makes manifest how people have been overpowered by truth itself” (Ratzinger, “Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith,” p. 257).
    • Nature of the Kingdom
      • The kingdom Our Lord established “was to be in the souls of men since apart from that it could have borne no fruit” (286-3)
        • What Sheed appears to mean here is that the kingdom could only bear fruit in the souls of rational beings, for the bearing of fruit consists in works of charity, and works of charity can only be done by beings having an intellect and a free will.
      • “But it was not to be only in the souls of men. We must complete [i.e., in us must be completed] such phrases of Our Lord as [the following]” (286-3):
        • “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Lk 17:21), that is, hidden in the souls of men.
        • “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden” (Mt 5:14), that is, externally visible and, thus, not only in the souls of men.
      • In short, the actualization of the kingdom must have a two-fold nature such that it is in us (hidden) and we are in it (externally visible).
  5. The Special Functions of Peter
    • The Kingdom Is Built on Rock: The Pillar and Chief Shepherd
      • “For the protection of Truth and the preservation of the integrity of the channels of [supernatural] life, Our Lord made still further provision by choosing one of the Apostles and giving him special functions.” We see this in three different episodes during Jesus’ public ministry (287-1):
      • In the first episode, Jesus selected Simon from the Twelve, changed His name to “Rock,” and declared that He would build His Church on that Rock:
        • “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter [i.e., Rock], and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt 16:17-19).
      • The second episode takes place at the Last Supper. Peter was declared to be “Rock” long before the Last Supper took place. Nevertheless, at the Last Supper “a dispute . . . arose among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest” (Lk 22:24; 287-2).
        • Immediately following the dispute, Our Lord settled it by specifically naming Peter as the one who would be the pillar of support for the rest of the Twelve (287-2):
        • “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren” (Lk 22:31-32).
      • The third episode takes place after the Resurrection, where Jesus gives Peter the role of Chief Shephard of the flock. He asks Peter three times if he loves Him. Peter replies in the affirmative each time, and Jesus replies successively to Peter’s responses:
        • “Feed my lambs,” “Tend my sheep,” “Feed my sheep” (Jn 21:15-17).
    • The Meaning of These Episodes
      • “Taking any one of these episodes, we must see that the function entrusted to Peter was very great; taking them all together, we see it is enormous” (287-3).
      • In the first episode (Caesarea):
        • Peter is the Rock upon which the Church (called the kingdom of heaven) was to be built (287-3).
          • Note: In order to better appreciate the name change from Peter to Rock, read one of the Gospels replacing each instance of Peter with Rock. Mark’s Gospel has the highest number of occurrences of “Peter” relative to the total number of verses in a Gospel.
          • “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock” (Mt 7:24).
        • Peter is to have supremacy in the Kingdom, for keys are a symbol of supremacy (287-3).
        • As the holder of the keys, Peter is to have the final power of regulation and discipline, for his permissions and prohibitions are ratified in heaven (287-1).
      • In the second episode (Last Supper) (see 287-2):
        • “[Peter] is to safeguard the unity of the brethren, whom otherwise Satan would scatter like chaff, because by the prayer of God his own faith would not fail” (288-1).
        • This complements the first charism given to Peter (supremacy in regulation and discipline) in that not only will Peter’s binding and loosing be ratified in heaven, they will be infallible decisions.
          • Compare to Moses’ decision to allow the Israelites to write a decree of divorce, which was rescinded by Jesus (see Dt 24:1-4, Mt 19:7-9).
        • To better understand the meaning of Lk 22:31-32, consider the following:
          • Jesus knew that Peter’s faith would fail, with respect to his personal faith, in a matter of hours. For this reason, He says “when you have turned again.”
          • Consequently, it is clear that when he says “your faith may not fail” He is praying for something other than Peter’s personal acts of faith. It would make no sense for Jesus to pray for something (an infallible personal faith) that He already knew would fail miserably in just a few hours with Peter’s threefold denial of Christ. But it would make sense to pray that the faith of the Church, expressed through Peter and his successors, would never fail.
      • In the third episode (post-Resurrection, the richest of all) (see 288-1):
        • Peter is to shepherd the whole flock: “Tend my sheep” (288-1).
        • Peter is to feed the whole flock, “Feed my sheep”, with the three kinds of food (i.e., truth, law and sacrament) needed by souls (288-1):
          • Truth: “Man shall not live by bread [material food] alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4).
          • Law (the will of God, the Way): “My food is to do the will of him who sent me” (Jn 4:34).
          • Sacrament (source of supernatural Life): “The bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” (Jn 6:51).
        • Hence, Peter is responsible for feeding the flock with truth, law and sacrament.
    • Parallels in the Titles of Christ and Peter
      • There are clear parallels to be found between the titles belonging to Christ and those He bestowed upon Peter (288-2).
      • Christ is the foundation; He makes Peter the foundation:
        • “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 3:11).
        • “You are Peter [i.e., Rock], and on this rock I will build my church” (Mt 16:18).
      • Christ is the key-bearer; He makes Peter the key-bearer:
        • “The words of the holy one [ i.e., Jesus, “the first and the last” (Rev 1:18)] , the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens” (Rev 3:7).
        • “I will give you [i.e., Peter] the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 16:19).
      • Christ is the Shepherd; He makes Peter the shepherd:
        • “I [Jesus] am the good shepherd” (Jn 10:11).
        • To Peter: “Feed my lambs,” “Tend my sheep,” “Feed my sheep” (Jn 21:15-17).
      • “All of this is in line with what we have already seen about the Church as a whole” (288-2).
        • Our Lord is truthgiver and lifegiver; the Church is truthgiver and lifegiver; that is, He will give truth and life through the Church (288-2).
        • Similarly, Our Lord is rock, key-bearer and shepherd; Peter is rock, key-bearer and shepherd; that is, Christ will continue what each title implies through Peter (288-2)
        • “Church or Peter, it is all the same. Neither matters save as an instrument through which Christ has chosen to work” (289-1).
    • The Kingdom Develops as It Grows
      • “The kingdom would grow as it moved outward and onward toward its two limiting points – all the nations of the earth and the end of time – and there would be some increase of complexity in its structure to meet new needs created by its growth” (289-2).
        • An example of this is found early in the Acts of the Apostles when the need arose to share a portion of the apostolic ministry with other men so as to meet the genuine needs of the Hellenist widows. This need gave rise to the diaconate (Acts 6:1-6).
      • Nevertheless, His mission would be continued till the end of time through the living framework He established before His Passion, Death and Resurrection – one kingdom with a great body of citizens, governed by a small number of officials over whom one “is head over the rest and the servant of all” (289-2).
      • So the kingdom was when the Holy Spirit descended upon it at Pentecost, so it is today, and so it will be till the end of time (289-2).

Chapter 20 Addendum: Notes on the Unique Role of Peter

  1. The Primacy of Peter:
    • The Apostles’ Concern with Rank
      • Immediately following Peter’s confession of Jesus’ Messiahship, Jesus revealed Peter’s unique role of primacy in the Kingdom:
        • “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt 16:18-19).
      • The Gospels make it clear that the primacy of Peter was not immediately apparent to the Apostles during the public ministry of Jesus.
      • Salome, who may have been Jesus’ aunt, asked Jesus to place her sons, James and John, at His right and left hands in His kingdom (Mt 20:21, Mk 10:37)
      • The Gospels record three distinct instances of arguments among the Apostles as to which of them is the greatest (Mt 18:1-5, 20:24-28; Mk 9:33-37, 10:41-45; Lk 9:46, 22:24).
      • The last of these arguments (Lk 22:24) took place at the Last Supper!
    • The Doctrine of the Resurrection
      • The Resurrection is not initially considered to be a fact, despite the testimony of the women who went to the tomb. It became a doctrine of the Church only after Jesus had made what looks to be a private appearance to Peter (1 Cor 15:5).
        • “He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve” (1 Cor 15:5).
      • Peter shared news of the appearance of Jesus with the other Apostles, after which the Apostolic College could announce the Resurrection as a fact to the two disciples who had seen the Lord on their way to Emmaus:
        • “[The two disciples] rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them, who said, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!’” (Lk 24:33-34).
      • “Afterward [‘on the evening of that day’ (Jn 20:19)] he appeared to the eleven themselves as they sat at table; and he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen” (Mk 16:14).
    • No Power Struggle in the Earliest Days of the Church
      • Since there was clearly a strong interest among some of the Apostles to be recognized individually as ranking first among them, why is there no evidence of a “power struggle” among the Apostles in the earliest days of the Church?
      • That there was no power struggle is witnessed by the fact that the argument over who among them was the greatest, which took place at the Last Supper, was recorded by Luke, who is also the author of the Acts of the Apostles. Rather, the Acts of the Apostles make it clear that Peter was the head of the Apostolic College, as will be shown below.
      • The possibility of a “power struggle” was definitively eliminated by Jesus’ after the Resurrection by the commission Jesus gave to Peter to be the chief pastor of the flock (Jn 21:15-19). This commission took place in the presence of the Apostle John, son of Salome, who recorded it in his Gospel.
  2. Scriptural Evidence for the Primacy of Peter
    • Primacy of Peter in the Gospels
      • The names of all the Apostles as a group are listed three times in the New Testament (Mt 10:2, Lk 6:14, Acts 1:13). Peter always heads the list.
      • The names of Peter, James and John as a group are listed seven times (Mt 17:1, Mk 5:37, Mk 9:2, Mk 13:3 [includes Peter’s brother Andrew], Mk 14:33, Lk 8:51, Lk 9:28. Again, Peter always heads the list.
      • Peter’s name is used nearly 200 times in the New Testament (as Peter, Simon, or Cephas). The next most frequently named of the original twelve Apostles is John (about 30 times).
        • All of the original twelve Apostles’ names taken together, excepting Peter, add up to 130 references.
    • Primacy of Peter Depicted by Luke
      • Paul’s name is mentioned 169 times in the New Testament; 142 of those are in the Acts of the Apostles.
      • The Acts of the Apostles was written by Luke, the “beloved physician” (Col 4:14) who was one of the missionary companions of Paul. If there were a real competitor for the primacy bestowed upon Peter, the Apostle Paul would be the best candidate. But it is Paul’s traveling companion, writing after the time of Paul’s first three missionary journeys, who depicts Peter as the undisputed head of the Apostles both in his Gospel (esp. Lk 22:31-32) and in his 55 references to Peter in Acts.
    • Peter in the Acts of the Apostles
      • Peter is the first bishop of Jerusalem (evidenced by the actions listed below).
      • Peter called for the election of Matthias, which took place prior to Pentecost (Acts 1:15).
        • Prior to this time, only Jesus had raised an individual to the rank of Apostle. Here, Peter is clearly claiming the same power for the college of Apostles.
      • Peter was the first to preach the Good News (on Pentecost Sunday, Acts 2:14) after which 3000 were baptized.
      • Peter directs the first converts to repent and be baptized (Acts 2:38).
      • Peter performed the first miracle (healing of a lame beggar, Acts 3:6).
      • Peter (with John at his side) addressed the people in Solomon’s portico (following the healing of 3:6) and 5000 were converted (Acts 4:4).
      • Peter and John were the first Apostles to be arrested for preaching the good news (Acts 4:3).
      • Peter and John were the first of the Apostles to be called before the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:6).
        • Peter addressed them filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:7).
      • Peter administered the first punishment on a member of the Church (Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5:3, 8).
      • Peter was the first to raise someone from the dead (Tabitha, Acts 9:40).
      • Peter abrogated the Mosaic Law (Acts 10:34-35, 47)
      • Peter was responsible for bringing the first Gentiles into the Church (Cornelius and family, Acts 10:47).
  3. Historical Note on the Primacy of Peter
    • The Four Patriarchal Churches
      • Peter is the only person to be the bishop (“episkopos,” overseer) of more than one of the four patriarchal churches; he was the first bishop of three of them (Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome), and he is closely associated with the fourth, Alexandria, through the Evangelist Mark, whom Eusebius tells us “was the first to establish churches in Alexandria” and “who had been Peter’s interpreter” (see “The History of the Church,” I, 16; III, 39.15)
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About Dick Landkamer

In my day job, I'm an IT Analyst (BSEE, University of Nebraska) for Catholic Charities of Wichita. Outside of my regular job, I have a passion for theology (MA Theology, Newman University), sacred music, traditional church architecture, logic, philosophy, mathematics, physics, astronomy, and a host of other related things.
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