The city of Caesarea Philippi was named after Caesar Augustus, and it was named by Philip II, son of King Herod the Great. (The “Herod” mentioned in the first reading is King Herod Agrippa.) It was a very pagan city, which made it a great place for Jesus to ask Peter His famous question: “Who do you say that I am?” If Jesus were here today, He might wait until He was in some place like Las Vegas to probe Peter’s perception of Him.
In Caesarea Philippi there is a rock called the Rock of the Gods, which has been the site of temples to false gods. In this rock, there is an opening called “Entrance into Hades.” The gates at the entrance, to which Jesus refers, represent the imprisonment of the dead, before the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus words, “I will build my church,” mean that He, in and with His Apostles and the Church, will have victory over this kingdom of death by His establishment of a greater kingdom: the Kingdom of God. The gates of death will not be able to overcome the power Jesus has and is and is going to give to His Apostles and His Church. The gates are very strong, but not strong enough to hold back Jesus, His Apostles, and His Church.
On this solemnity, we Catholics hear the words of Jesus that found our faith in the primacy of Peter, the office of pope, and apostolic succession. We hear Jesus’ promise of redemption from the power of the grave and His first use of the word church, and we learn the place of the Church in the world and the glorious role she plays in salvation.
It is not only the man who once denied Jesus whom we remember today, however. There is also the one who Jesus said persecuted Him by persecuting Christians. This was Paul. While Peter carried the message of Jesus to the Jews, Paul carried it to the Gentiles. If it were not for Paul, you and I might not be here in this church. The message of Our Lord may never have reached us. We honor, then, Paul’s great missionary spirit.
And so, we celebrate Peter, the first visible Vicar of Christ after Christ’s death, Peter, who first governs the Church Christ built over the old and fallen rocks of the pagan world. We celebrate Paul, the late Apostle of Christ, Paul, who carries, far and wide, the news of Christ’s victory over death to all who would hear, whose travel, work, and inexhaustible energy are responsible for our being together to hear the Word, receive the Sacrament, and take part in the Church that Christ Himself founded.
