Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus asked two questions: who do people say I am, and who do YOU say I am. The first has many answers. The second has only yours. Peter answered from revelation, not from reasoning, and on that answer the Church was built. Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom of God - how inscrutable his judgments, how unsearchable his ways. Let us come to this Mass ready to answer the second question.

Isaiah speaks the oracle against Shebna and the installation of Eliakim: the key of the House of David placed on his shoulder, when he opens no one closes, when he closes no one opens, fixed as a peg in a sure spot for the honor of his family. Paul closes his meditation on Israel and the Gentiles with pure doxology: the depth of God's riches and wisdom and knowledge, his inscrutable judgments and unsearchable ways - for from him and through him and for him are all things. The Gospel gives Peter's confession: you are the Christ, the Son of the living God - received not from flesh and blood but from the Father - and the promise of the keys and the rock and the gates of the netherworld that shall not prevail.

Lord Jesus, you asked who we say you are, and you await our answer from the inside: Lord, have mercy. Christ Jesus, you built your Church on a man who received the truth from the Father and you gave him the keys: Christ, have mercy. Lord Jesus, from you and through you and for you are all things - to you be glory forever: Lord, have mercy.

Introduction: God our Father, you revealed your Son to Peter not through flesh and blood but through your own gift. You built the Church on that revelation. We come before you today as people who have heard the first question's answers - and who need to answer the second one.

1. For the Church - built on the rock, holding the keys, that the gates of the netherworld would not prevail against her in this generation; we pray to the Lord.
2. For those who govern nations - that they would be pegs in sure spots for the people in their care, not occupying their station for their own benefit; we pray to the Lord.
3. For those in our community who know who people say Jesus is but have not yet answered the second question for themselves, that the Father's revelation would reach them; we pray to the Lord.
4. For the families of our parish - that our homes would have a peg in a sure spot, someone whose faith holds weight for the others; we pray to the Lord.
5. For those whose faith has been tested by inscrutable judgments and unsearchable ways, that Paul's doxology would be the honest response that survives the testing; we pray to the Lord.
6. For those who have died - especially [name] - that the one who holds the keys would open what no one else can close; we pray to the Lord.

Concluding prayer: Father, from you and through you and for you are all things. To you be glory forever. Receive what we have brought today. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.