Chair of St Peter
By Fr. Alberic Maisog
Undoubtedly St Peter is a large figure in Christian history and in the church, but one most accessible to us, most like us and encouraging to us all, both in his weakness and in his faith and love for Christ.
In choosing Peter our Lord seems to be affirming that we don’t have to be perfect before we can become God’s instruments or do God’s work.
The church was founded by Christ on a rock who seemed to be more like a sand dune at times.
Peter’s life tells us that our service of God does not have to wait till we are impeccable in some un-real sense. If we are indefectible we would have outgrown God’s grace, and that we never do. Any claim to such perfection for ourselves or for others is a hoax.
God knows of what we are made, how weak and imperfect and deficient we are. We were told last Ash Wednesday that we came from dust and to dust we shall return; but God uses us nevertheless to be the hands and mouths that do and proclaim the message: To bear witness to the kingdom of God on earth and to declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called us out of darkness into this marvelous light. Christian and Monastic life must live with the healthy tension that exists between what we are and what we should be, with our happy accomplishments and with our constant need for forgiveness and new beginnings.