Embracing a New Chapter

Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings of Year A: Isaiah 22:19-23; Romans 11:33-36; Matthew 16:13-20

Humanity still has the ability to work together in building our common home” proclaimed Pope Francis in his landmark encyclical letter Laudato Si’ five years ago. As we begin to consider the beginnings of emerging from the pandemic I think we need to hear those words more than ever. In so many of his homilies, messages and in his weekly General Audience the Holy Father speaks to us so prophetically at this time, calling us as global society to embrace a new chapter which promotes the harmony of the whole human race and of creation. And, most importantly for me, he warns us that we cannot stand by waiting for the “new normal” to arrive. Rather, as we begin to emerge from the tunnel, with all the grief, fear, anxiety and uncertainty about what that “new normal” can be, we are being called to build that future. As Christians we have a special duty and responsibility to take our place in society with a new confidence as builders of that new society as we learn the lessons of this time and discern the path together with all people of good will.

For me this call to create something new seems to be permeating so much we do at this still extraordinary time, rooting itself in hearts and minds. The experience of the lockdown has been different for each individual and it is too early to draw collective conclusions. However there is a sense that questions are being asked about our very identity as human beings, about spirituality, about God. And contemplation has led to the desire to do good, to serve the most vulnerable, to care for the environment, for me to practise what I preach and aspire to.

All this has been expressed in the incredible numbers participating in Mass through the livestreaming here at Farm Street and in the numbers offering to help the homeless, even when putting oneself at risk. The usual sequence of the Church’s calendar, with its lows of Lent and highs of Easter and Pentecost has been invaded by our own strong emotions: the grief, the relief, the depression and the emergence from the tunnel, of God’s people as we experience call as a pilgrim people in a 21st century desert. The Psalms have felt more palpably for me the prayer of the Church right now. And now Ordinary Time is anything but ordinary, however much I might want to embrace the return to its default setting, a fallow period where we could expect a predictable new September and so return to normality.

In the midst of all this uncertainty and soul searching, of this petulance and determination to come out of the tunnel, in the darkness of depression and in the new lucidity when fires of faith, hope and love are reignited, Jesus comes to us and puts his confidence in us as he did Peter. In this Sunday’s Gospel we hear Jesus ask him one thing only: “Who do you say that I am?” And on Peter’s response that he is the Christ, the one who saves us from what holds us back, Jesus puts his trust in him as the rock who will build the Church. Peter’s faith is not a million miles away from most of ours. He has lived extraordinary times, has doubted and denied him and misunderstood what he is about, yet puts his confidence in him to build the Kingdom on earth as a new and totally uncertain era dawned.

As we continue on this uncertain path may we hear the call God makes of each of us a call to, as St John Henry Newman put it, “some definite service” which makes sense of why we are here at all.

Fr Dominic Robinson, S.J.