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23 ago 2026

23 August 2026 – 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

23 August 2026 – 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

1st reading: Is 22:19–23; Psalm 137; 2nd reading: Rom 11:33–36; Gospel: Mt 16:13–20

The steward Shebna indulged in lavish banquets, living a life of wealth and revelry, instead of doing penance and praying for the dangers facing the people. He and the leaders were called to repentance, yet they thought only of their own pleasures and amusements. For this reason, God tells the prophet Isaiah, such a man must be replaced by another of proven faithfulness. This is Eliakim, who will receive the robe and sash of authority, and to whom the keys will be entrusted: ‘If he opens, no one will shut; if he shuts, no one will open.’

This account can help us to understand Jesus’ words to Simon Peter. To him, he promises ‘the keys of the kingdom of heaven’. Who had held them until now? They were held by the chief priests and the scribes, who believed they had the right to rule over the whole people. They were certain they knew and could teach God’s will. They believed themselves to be instruments of God, but ever since Jesus came, they have shown themselves incapable of recognising him, let alone welcoming him. He, Jesus, through the miracles he performed—the very ones foretold by the prophets—gave unmistakable signs of his identity. Simon, however, knew this, and had revealed it before everyone when answering the question: ‘But who do you say that I am?’ . He had declared with confidence: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’.

Upon hearing this reply, Jesus realised that his disciple was worthy to bear the keys to his kingdom. The scribes and leaders were only capable of hindering him, and they did so, even going so far as to turn the people against him, accusing him of acting with the help of Beelzebul. These leaders and religious authorities were no longer God’s collaborators; on the contrary, they were his enemies, rejecting the one whom the Father had sent.

To hold the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven means to be the king’s foremost collaborator in that kingdom. Jesus does not yet hand them over to Simon, but he promises them to him: he will receive them when the Holy Spirit comes. Then he will know how to use them with true discernment: he must be able to open, but also to close the doors; that is, he must be able to distinguish between those who truly listen to Jesus and obey him – as one obeys one’s own king – and those who, on the other hand, pretend to follow him, following him in the hope of furthering their own interests, or following him hypocritically. Peter will possess this discernment solely through the Spirit of God who will be given to him, just as he will also be given to the other apostles.

The words spoken by Peter—which earn him this nickname because of the certainty and steadfastness of faith they express—are so true that Jesus recognises them as having been inspired in his disciple by God himself, by the Father. A stable, eternal edifice can be built upon the content of those words: it will be the Church, which will remain for ever. Those words will not give way to others: they are certain truth. He, Jesus, is sent by that God of whom he is the beloved Son, as the Father himself had revealed whilst he was being baptised by John at the River Jordan.

Peter will prove that he is not yet able to draw the full implications from the truth he has spoken. He does not know—or rather, he does not attribute to Jesus all that the prophets foretell concerning him: indeed, he would not even want the prophecies to come true for the Son of God. He will have to be converted once more, learn God’s will for his Son, accept the cross of Christ, and, consequently, his own. The revelation contained in his words remains profoundly true, even though he, who spoke them, does not fully grasp their truth or all their implications.

God’s plans and ways are unpredictable and beyond the grasp of human understanding. St Paul says as much—for other reasons too—when he declares: ‘Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and his ways beyond our reaching!’

We are filled with wonder and a longing to know ‘the mind of the Lord’, even though it lies so far beyond our capacity for reasoning and understanding. And we take joy in knowing—and indeed in experiencing—that the keys, now placed in the hands of the apostle and the apostles, open the door for us to draw near to Jesus. And we are grateful even when they are closed, for we are protected from the temptations that disturb us from within or without: if we know that the doors are closed to certain lines of reasoning or beliefs, we set them aside. We always wish to find free access to the kingdom of our God, the kingdom of which Jesus is the sole King, who welcomes us into his freedom.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)