Upon this rock I will build my church

7 AUGUST (Mt 16,13-23)

The heart of a man should always rejoice in an uncontrollable awe before the works of the Lord. Our spirit should be worshiping, blessing, in perpetual attitude of praise and thanksgiving. We should enjoy the same wonder experienced by Sirach: Now will I recall God’s works; what I have seen, I will describe. At God’s word were his works brought into being; they do his will as he has ordained for them. As the rising sun is clear to all, so the glory of the Lord fills all his works; Yet even God’s holy ones must fail in recounting the wonders of the Lord, Though God has given these, his hosts, the strength to stand firm before his glory. He plumbs the depths and penetrates the heart; their innermost being he understands. The Most High possesses all knowledge, and sees from of old the things that are to come: He makes known the past and the future, and reveals the deepest secrets. No understanding does he lack; no single thing escapes him. Perennial is his almighty wisdom; he is from all eternity one and the same, With nothing added, nothing taken away; no need of a counsellor for him! How beautiful are all his works! even to the spark and the fleeting vision! The universe lives and abides forever; to meet each need, each creature is preserved. All of them differ, one from another, yet none of them has he made in vain, For each in turn, as it comes, is good; can one ever see enough of their splendour?” (Sir 42,15-25).

Nothing on earth is more most beautiful than his Church. She is the work of the Lord’s works, his masterpiece. She is the sublime of God. She is the work God has set his hand and he is always attentive to, so that this marvelous, wonderful, divine and human masterpiece not only retains her original beauty, in this beauty she grows day by day until dressing herself in the same divine beauty and holiness. All those who have come out of this divine beauty of unity, holiness, grace and truth have become vanity. They transformed themselves into lamps without light, salt without flavor, in word without truth, in structures that are not the stupendous work of God on our earth.

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Messiah. From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

The Church of God is wonderfully nice if it remains in eternal the work of God and she is God’s work if she is built on the rock which is Peter. Only this Church will always be renewed, purified, elevated and updated in her beauty of truth, grace and holiness. All the others that are not on the foundation of Peter, are the works of men, not of God, not of Christ and not of the Holy Spirit. Not being God their Author, they are exposed to every attack of the underworld and fall miserably in darkness and in all falsehood. They are churches without true light. Theirs is a light of human rationality, without any divine truth. Many of them, almost all, are also without sacramental grace. They are really poor and petty supernaturally speaking. A church that can does not let herself be permanently made by God, will always be the Church of yesterday and not of today, of men and not of God, of the earth and not of heaven. Never might be the bearer of the purest present truth, of the most holy and complete grace in the world today.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us always true Church.