Why is Peter Called Rock?

 (Formally a Homily for the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul)              Matthew 16:13-16

In the gospel today our lord asked an important question to his apostles:” Who am I?”. They all gave various answers, but Peter stood up and proclaimed that our Lord was the Messiah, the son of the living God. In response, our Lord told Peter that he was a rock and that he was going to build his Church upon that rock

In the Catholic Church this is one of the few sections of scripture that our bishops have given a binding definition. Catholics are required to believe that this is when Peter was given the authority to be the first Pope. Even though this is true the problem with making this emphasis is that we sometimes miss the greater meaning behind why Peter was given this authority, a meaning that is central to our Byzantine tradition.

Before our Lord Jesus gave Peter his authority, he brought the apostles to an interesting place. They were on a mountain filled with pagan temples and shrines. This mountain was considered by the ancient Hebrew people as the origin of all the demonic activity in the world. It was also known to the pagans in that region as the gate to the underworld, the gate to Hades. When Peter made his proclamation to our Lord, “You are the Son of God” our Lord’s response was in the context of the environment. They were on a mountain with a pagan temple and our Lord was telling Peter you are going to be a mountain that I’m going to build my temple upon.

Going further into the context, imagine how the ancient Hebrews understood this place. Imagine these pagan temples on this mountain as places for real demonic beings. How do you think those beings felt when our Lord made his proclamation to Peter. It was basically an act of war. He was telling them that their time was up and that his new temple the Church is going to prevail against them.  Consider the image of our Lord pointing his finger at the pagan temple that was called the gate to their domain, the gate to Hades, to the place where those who wielded the power of death over us and saying, “I’m going to take your power away”.

In one of his writings that we have in scripture Peter was reflecting upon the events of what happened when they were at the gates of Hades. Now with greater context because of our Lord’s resurrection. He said that when Christ died, he went through that gate to the underworld, to the place of the prison of the false gods, the fallen angels, and proclaimed to them that they are defeated. Their defeat came by what he was going to do, which would be rising from their domain, death. In some of our Icons of the Resurrection you can get a glimpse of that. There is usually a man that looks beaten up and bound surrounded by broken fragments of a gate, the gate of Hades.

Our Church, which has its foundation on Peter, and Paul, whom we honor today, is how we will fulfill our Lord’s proclamation against the powers of darkness. These forces had power over this world through death. We belonged to those beings who dwell in hades because we die. As we know our Lord went to the place because he died but this time he surprised these forces because he was also God, and God does not die and that would be our way to be free from their domain because it is through his Church built by Peter that we would we have access to our Lord’s divinity.

In another one of his writings that we have in scripture Peter said that we have become partakers of the divine nature. Through the Church our Lord has given us the power to beat death by becoming gods, beings who experience immortality. This is happening right now in every Divine Liturgy; we are becoming what our Lord Jesus is as we worship him and the climax of this experience is when he will share his very nature with us, when we receive the Holy Eucharist, his body and blood. His body and blood will become our own body and blood and the evidence for this is that when we die we too, with our Lord, will proclaim the defeat of those beings who had power over us, for just like our Lord there will be a surprise instead of mere human beings these evil forces will encounter gods who will be resurrected.