God’s judgments are unfathomable and his ways inaccessible, Paul declares to the Romans. Nobody could know the thought of the Lord, if he were not to reveal it to us. Jesus reminds Peter: “neither flesh nor blood have revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven”. Jesus then makes a promise to Peter and entrusts him with an assignment, which respond to the same logic: they are founded on the gift that comes from the Father, not on the flesh and blood of Peter’s possibilities. There is this communication that is established between God and Peter: he will be a rock if and when he can trust not in himself, but in the rock that is God. On the other hand, what Peter and the community of disciples implement in history has a reflection in the sky. God’s gift creates this interaction: if Peter and the community act based on the revelation of God’s judgments, God himself will act in the life of the Church. The passage ends with Jesus’ recommendation not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. The theme of the messianic secret emerges: the disciples cannot announce the mystery of Jesus before Easter, when his secret is fully revealed. Behind this invitation, however, we can see something else: the admonition to ensure that it is not our flesh and our blood that speak of Jesus, deforming his face according to our expectations or preconceptions. It is God alone who, even through us and our words, can fully reveal the mystery of the Son.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey