Oblate News

The Superior General’s Homily at St. Peter’s Tomb

OMIWorld: Homily in Saint Peter’s Basilica November 26, 2024

The Superior General accompanied the Major Superiors on a pilgrimage to the Vatican, where he celebrated Mass at the tomb of St. Peter. Below is the homily he delivered during the Eucharist he presided over.

HOMILY IN SAINT PETER’S BASILICA
NOVEMBER 26, 2024
Readings: 2 Peter 3:8-15,17-18, Psalm 22, John 21:15-19

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We celebrate the Eucharist in this chapel near the relics of St. Peter. His testimony can inspire us as we seek to live our service of authority in a more evangelical way. The testimonies collected in the New Testament are a treasure trove to which we can turn for inspiration. We celebrate the Eucharist a few meters from the place where Peter, almost two thousand years ago, made his last service to the Christian community by bearing witness to the Lord Jesus with his death. From this testimony of Peter I dare to propose some points that could help us in our ministry.

The service of evangelical authority is a mission.

In fact, it is Jesus who calls Simon, the fisherman from Galilee. Later he will give him a specific mission that is expressed by a change of name: you will be Peter, Rock for the community of Jesus’ followers. Peter has to learn during his life that he is not the protagonist, but the Lord who has called him and sent him. With pain he learns to think like God and not like men. On his journey he sometimes hears words of reproach for his lack of faith. He learns to be humble by allowing himself to have his feet washed and to be forgiven by the Lord who, despite Peter’s weakness, will continue to entrust to him his mission of confirming his brothers in the faith. In Peter, his weakness becomes a guarantee that it is the Lord who guides the boat and who decides on the best place and time to cast the nets. He learns that humility, which is walking in truth, is the key to the service of authority. A humility that is learned from Christ who invites us to be meek and humble, like Him, who invites us to give our lives for our brothers. We must learn to let Jesus forgive us and embrace our weaknesses in order to be his faithful collaborators.

The service of evangelical authority and ecclesial synodality

Peter is not the one who runs the fastest to the Master’s tomb on the day of the resurrection. Neither is he the first to discover Him risen the third time He appears to his disciples on the morning of the miraculous catch of fish. He even has to listen to Paul’s reproach for his lack of consistency. Peter learns from all these experiences to walk with others in order to exercise his mission not in an authoritarian but in a synodal way. He learns to discern with others when it comes to completing the number of apostles or choosing the deacons who will serve the community.  Learn to say “we” abandoning the “I” when announcing the Risen One and working miracles in the name of the Lord. He learns to walk and discern synodally to resolve the tensions of the first communities. Today Peter’s successor asks us to walk in synodality with the people of God who are also the Body of Christ. He asks us to learn the art of discernment by listening to all the voices in which the Spirit is waiting for us to help us find how to respond evangelically to the challenges of our mission. It asks us to dare to be pilgrims of hope in communion in a synodal and missionary Church. 

The service of evangelical authority is love and following

“Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep”. We have heard in the Gospel this wonderful passage in which Jesus not only confirms Peter’s mission after the resurrection, but also tells him how he should carry out this mission: “Follow me”. Love and following are essential for a service of evangelical authority. Love for Jesus and for all that Jesus loves: God, his Mother, the Church, the poor. The service of authority should help us to grow in that love by learning to love, to think, to look as Jesus does. At the same time, the service of evangelical authority is learned by following the Master, being his disciples, letting Him guide us to be at the same time merciful and just, at the same time servant and guide.

The service of evangelical authority is prophecy and hope.

Peter also teaches us to trust in the Lord who has the last word. We are called to proclaim “a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells”. The service of evangelical authority is a witness to the hope that everything and everyone can change according to the newness of the Kingdom. This service is lived in a prophetic way, that is, speaking to people about God’s plan, inviting them to conversion, and at the same time, speaking to God about the people to whom He has sent us. The first prophecy is our way of living: before inviting others to conversion, we set out to fulfill God’s will.

To be prophets and pilgrims of hope also means to match our time to God’s time. St. Peter continues to tell us in the reading we have just heard: “Therefore, my dear friends, while you are waiting for these events, make sure that God finds you at peace with him, blameless and irreproachable, and consider that the patience of our Lord is our salvation”. God’s patience nourishes our hope that even our imperfect and limited service is part of a process that we have to begin or encourage even if we do not get to see the end result, as the Pope reminds us.

Let us live with joy this time that God gives us as a time of grace for us, a time in which we can embody, like Peter, the joy of having been called to participate in Christ’s service to his people, the joy of living the Gospel with the poor by being pilgrims of hope and joyfully proclaiming the Gospel. In these holy places that remind us of St. Peter, let us ask for his intercession so that we may live the service of authority from the oblation of our life in the service of our brothers and sisters and the poor. Amen