Peter is the Vicar of Christ

Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter June 6th, 2025

Jun 06, 2025

A setting in a biblical passage can be crucial to understanding an essential detail of what is happening in the dialogue. In today’s Gospel Liturgy, the setting is mentioned outside of the selected reading earlier in the chapter, which is why it’s essential, as I’ve stressed many times in my gospel reflections, to look at what is happening before the passage and after it, too. A key detail that is missing from the Liturgy of the Word today is Jesus making dinner over a charcoal fire. The charcoal fire serves as the interpretive key for understanding the significance of Jesus and Peter’s conversation today.

The charcoal fire is the setting of Peter’s denial of Jesus:

Now the slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire that they had made, because it was cold, and were warming themselves. Peter was also standing there keeping warm. ^[1]

Now, the charcoal fire is prepared by our Lord Jesus for a fellowship meal with His Apostles. What is also an interesting detail in this passage, and perhaps overlooked, is that we have a reversal of Peter’s name, signifying an occurrence of Peter’s denial of our Lord—a rejection of discipleship and the munus (the office) of the keys from Peter.

Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”^[2]

In fact, the detail is essential for understanding the Petrine Doctrine. Our Protestant brothers and sisters will attempt to minimize the name change of Peter by our Lord in a two-fold method. The Protestant exegete will typically claim Jesus is the rock. many Catholics have suggested that the problem with this particular interpretation is that it does not follow the straightforward reading of the passage from Matthew 16:18-19:

And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven. ^[3]

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The next part of the twofold method for the Protestant exegete is attempting to claim that it is Peter’s confession that is the rock on which Jesus will build His Church. Catholics need to acknowledge there is a Patristic pedigree to this argument, and it should not be merely dismissed. Several Church Fathers argue that it is Peter’s confession that serves as the rock. St. Augustine, as recorded by St. Thomas Aquinas, gives a fully developed exegesis on this thesis from Augustine’s Retractions:

“I have said in a certain place of the Apostle Peter, that it was on him, as on a rock, that the Church was built. But I know that since that I have often explained these words of the Lord, Thou art Peter, and on this rock will I build my Church, as meaning upon Him whom Peter had confessed in the words, Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God; and so that Peter, taking his name from this rock, would represent the Church, which is built upon this rock. For it is not said to him, Thou art the rock, but, Thou art Peter. (1 Cor. 10:4.) But the rock was Christ, whom because Simon thus confessed, as the whole Church confesses Him, he was named Peter. Let the reader choose whether of these two opinions seems to him the more probable.”^[4]

St. Augustine quotes 1 Corinthians, often the passage cited by Protestant exegetes to dismiss Petrine doctrine, and asserts that the Rock is Christ. It’s important to note that Augustine leaves it up to the reader: “Let the reader choose whether of these two opinions seems to him the more probable.” It’s crucial to highlight the fact through that no matter who is the rock in which the Church is built Jesus still gives the keys of Divine Kingship to Peter as His Vicar in v.19. Peter being the rock, with the munus of Vicar, in the context of Matthew is more probable when understood in the context of the fullness of the canon of Sacred Scripture.

Jesus gives “the keys of the kingdom of heaven” in v. 19. What are the keys? How is the reader to understand the purpose of the keys given to Peter? What is interesting is how Matthew writes the passage of Matthew 16:18-19 as a mirror image of the munus of the keyholder found in Isaiah 22:22-24:

“And I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder: and he shall open, and none shall shut: and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place, and he shall be for a throne of glory to the house of his father. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, divers kinds of vessels, every little vessel, from the vessels of cups even to every instrument of music.” ^[5]

The periscope read for today’s gospel is essential for understanding the munus, or office, of the keyholder. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus changes Peter's name to symbolize a change in Peter’s status. The shift in status happens regardless of Jesus being the rock, as St. Paul references in First Corinthians, or Peter’s confession being the rock. There is a change of status within the twelve Apostles because Jesus places the authority of the keyholder on Peter, regardless of who is the rock.

We know there is a significance to change of name and status of Peter because after Peter denies Jesus—Jesus refers to him in today’s gospel as Simon. Peter denies Jesus three times during the Passion of our Lord; however, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, gives Peter an opportunity to profess his love for Him three times. Our Lord reaffirms Peter’s special status among the Apostles. Francis Martin and William M. Wright IV explain:

“Jesus assigns him a responsibility as the shepherd of his sheep: Feed my lambs.… Tend my sheep.… Feed my sheep. Throughout the Bible, those people appointed by God to lead and govern his people are often spoken of as shepherds (e.g., 2 Sam 5:2; Ezek 34:2; 1 Pet 5:2), and in the Fourth Gospel, this scene recalls the Good Shepherd Discourse (10:1–18). Jesus is the good shepherd, and he gives Peter a unique share in his work of shepherding. As shepherd of Christ’s sheep, Peter has a special role as leader and custodian of Jesus’ disciples (see Matt 16:17–19; Luke 22:32). Modeled on the good shepherd, Peter’s office as shepherd is one of self-sacrificial service and care for the sheep.”^[6]

It's essential for us Catholics to remember that when discussing the Petrine primacy doctrine, the periscope found in today’s gospel is key to explaining Peter’s primacy. The passage illustrates a loss of discipleship and munus through sin and a reaffirmation of the responsibility of the munus of the keyholder—the vicar of the king—for the Church.

Jesus assigns him a responsibility as the shepherd of his sheep: Feed my lambs.… Tend my sheep.… Feed my sheep.

Does this special primacy bestowed on Peter still exist? Is there still a successor of St. Peter? St. Paul writes to the Ephesians, “So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord.”^[7] Catholics will assent to the revelation of Tradition, but Protestants hold the doctrine of Sola Scriptura—Scripture Alone. It can still be illustrated that there is a historical understanding as early as the 2^nd century A.D. from St. Irenaeus of Lyons, echoing the founding and building of the Church from St. Paul, writing in Against Heresies about Church leadership infrastructure, “The blessed Apostles having founded and built up the Church, they handed over the office of the episcopate to Linus.”^[8]

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