9. The Ecclesial Discourse.

At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus questions his disciples about current views that circulate on his person. Caesarea Philippi is abroad, regarding to the classic territory of Israel. In fact, the evangelist Matthew has recounted this movement with which Jesus moves away from the land of Israel and moves north, into a region of the pagans. It is a kind of break with the ancient structure of Israel and in Caesarea Philippi Jesus promises to build his Church.

In chapter 16, we are almost in the center of the gospel according to Matthew, when the evangelist presents this important fact. The other synoptics also describe Peter's profession of faith, but it is above all Matthew who gives particular importance to this event. Peter acknowledges that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. In the text of Mark or Luke this profession of faith is much simpler; it only refers to the messianism of Jesus. Instead, Matthew wanted to place the full profession of the Christian faith at the very center of this important moment. Jesus is Christ, but Jesus is also my God, the first and functional title, refers to the messianic function that Jesus is called to perform, but it is the second title, the most important title says the essence of his nature as the Son of God. Peter fully recognizes this person of Christ, and to him Jesus responds with a promise.

First of all, with a beatitude: “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, (Bar Jonah. Bar is an Aramaic expression which means ‘son’ - son of Jonah. He almost calls him by his first and last name to identify him well. "Blessed are you because no one of flesh and blood has revealed it to you, but my Father in heaven!" Flesh and blood is a typical Semitic expression to indicate the person in his or her natural weakness as a creature. ‘It is not your strengths that have allowed you to understand who I am; 'only the Father knows the Son.'

Jesus has already said it and Matthew has reported it with special emphasis: only the Father really knows who Jesus is and, therefore, the knowledge that Peter has, is not the result of his intuition or ability, but a gift; it is the heavenly Father who revealed it to him. It is the verb of the book of Revelation, this is the revelation to Peter. God has revealed to Peter who Jesus is, opened his eyes, gave him the gift of revelation. "Blessed are you, Simon."

Consequently, Jesus makes a promise: "I tell you that you are Peter and on this stone I will build my Church." 'Petros' is a created name, a nickname, linked to this initiative of Jesus. We know from other New Testament texts, the original Aramaic form. We read ‘Cephas’ but we should read it ‘Kefas’ which is the term Jesus used to describe Simon to the disciple. It means rock, not just stone, synonymous with rock; he is 'rock', that is to say, a great ideal base for a solid construction.

From the name of the rock, Jesus draws the image to give a nickname, a new name to the disciple. He characterizes him as 'rocky', solid, typical characteristic of faith, because faith is solidity, not opinion, but a solid and stable foundation upon which a life can be built. The intelligent man builds on rock. Jesus manifests himself as such and proposes to build his community on the rock of Peter.

Starting from that man, as a man of faith, Jesus is committed to building a community. The image of the spiritual and important building recalls the construction of the temple, the new temple, that is a community, not a material building, but a group of people. The word 'church' is not common in the gospels. It appears very few times, only three times in Matthew, and the first mention is here. With the possessive adjective Jesus calls him "my" Church. The word ‘ecclesia’ corresponding to the Hebrew ‘Kahal”, indicates an assembly, a gathering of people, a set of people. Your church is your community.

In ancient times, there was the tradition of the cultic assembly of Israel; the book of Numbers, for example, talks insistently on it. In a time closer to Jesus there was the assembly or the great assembly of the ‘casidim’, the environment that corresponded to a spiritual movement of these people, especially devoted and loyal. Jesus proposes ‘his’ Church, his community which will be built over time and promises that the gates of hell will not prevail over it.

In this formulation, we find many typically Semitic elements, therefore archaic, from an ancient tradition and linked to the words of Jesus himself, with original images: the gates of hell are the symbol of the force of death; it does not prevail over the community that Jesus will build; it is the power that destroys everything: death. It is a community that will resist the ruin of death. Jesus continues with the promise: "To you, Peter, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven."

Handing over the keys is a symbolic gesture that means giving the investiture of butler, in the sense of superior of the house, of the administrator of the community; but here he is not simply responsible for the group, but for the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom that Jesus has come to inaugurate is entrusted to Peter as administrator. “Everything you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; what you untie on earth will be loosed in heaven." The image also changes. These are not the keys that tie or untie; to continue the image it was necessary to use to open and close.

Another typically Jewish formulation linked to the environment is added of the teachers of the law. 'Bind and untie' has a double meaning; on the one hand, indicates the interpretation of a norm: a master binds and another master dissolves, in the sense that these two authorities interpret by saying: it can be done; it cannot be done; it is lawful; it is not lawful. Binding and loosening in the legal language of the time meant interpreting a norm.

Peter is given this interpretive authority of the gospel. The second sense is the most ecclesial one, and to bind and loosen means to accept or exclude; to admit in the group or send out of the group; recognize who belongs to the Church of Jesus and thus becomes an authority over the community; on identifying and on the possibility of preserving the identity over time, while maintaining fidelity to Jesus.

These words of promise to Peter are unique to the first evangelist. They demonstrate a particular attachment to these traditions and to Peter's role as the cornerstone of the community that is being built. Immediately after this moment of confession of faith and the announcement after the constitution of the Church, the painful series of passion announcements begins. In this case, Matthew follows the traditional scheme, documented above all by Mark. There are three announcement moments for three successive times. Jesus tells the disciples that he will go to Jerusalem and reveal to them that the end will be tragic, but it also heralds the final glorious moment of the resurrection.

Thus, we come to chapter 18 in which the evangelist Matthew has collected a series of ‘loguia’ on ecclesial life. As he has done for other discourses, also in this case the evangelist is a compiler that has gathered elements of tradition, has taken them from the source "Q", that hypothetical collection of sayings that are present in Matthew and Luke, or from other sources of his knowledge, unknown to us, and that he has compiled a discourse on life within the Christian community.

We remember that the structure of the Gospel of Matthew is marked by five discourses. The first, programmatic of the mountain, corresponds to the last, the eschatological one. The second is the mission, in chapter 10 and corresponds to the fourth, which is this. In Chapter 18, about the Church, there are two perspectives in which to see the church: towards the outside or inside. At the center, chapter 13, is that of the parables that communicate the mystery of the kingdom of God.

In chapter 18, therefore, the evangelist Matthew collected the teachings of Jesus about life within the Church. Present some facts about humility. The disciples should not think that they are greater, plan a career of superiority over others. They must be open to the little ones, they must value the little ones, the weak ones who do not count. He seriously warns them against scandal, the danger, that is, of causing harm to ruining people who are weak in faith.

By small we mean, above all, not small in stature or small in age, but weak people with few skills. If the intelligent ones, those trained in Matthew’s school of scribes, understand well what the law is and how to interpret it, it is necessary that he helps and respects the path of weak people who understand with more difficulty, no one must be lost.

The Father does not want anyone to be lost, so in this context, Matthew places the parable of the Lost Sheep, slightly different from how Luke presents it. For example, he changes a verb: it is not the ‘lost’ but ‘strayed’ sheep. It is only a nuance, but significant. For Luke, he is a ruined person, completely lost, estranged; instead, for Matthew, he is a brother who is on the wrong path. It is derailing. The task of going to find the brother who is taking a bad path and is likely to lose the good path is entrusted to the disciples. In fact, immediately after the parable of the lost sheep, Matthew narrates the teaching on fraternal correction: "If your brother offends you, go and correct him."

It is the way to search for the lost sheep, to help him recover the safe way. And gently insist with respect, "Take two witnesses if he doesn't listen to you, tell the community." These are the other two cases where the word "ecclesia" appears. In this case, it has not even been translated as ‘church’, but with the community. In chapter 16 it is translated as ‘Church’ with a capital letter; in this context it is translated as ‘community’, written in lowercase, but the concept is the same; the same original word is used. “If he ignores them, inform the community. And if he doesn’t listen to the community consider him a pagan or a tax collector."

Let us be attentive because we have to read these words from the evangelical perspective. The pagan and the tax collector are not rejects and negative elements to be thrown away and despised. Matthew was a tax collector, the pagan is the recipient of the evangelical preaching; they are the ones the Lord wants to save, those he came to save. Therefore, the competence of binding and loosing, that is, to recognize that a person is no longer in the community does not mean throwing her out with contempt and forgetting him or her, rather, it means making the person understand that the process of salvation must begin anew.

"Consider him a pagan or a tax collector". Saint John Chrysostom says with a simple, very explanatory joke: "Be for you like the pupil of your eyes." He is a person who deserves even more attention, needs affection and prayer so that he can recover from the situation and come back to the right path.

And immediately afterwards, in verse 18, we find that the same promise made to Peter alone is extended to the disciples. "I assure you that what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and what they loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” We recognize that in this context, ‘binding and loosing’ is understood in the sense of keeping that person within the community or consider him outside the community. And in this perspective, we also understand what is added after: “If two of you agree on earth to ask for anything, my Father in heaven will grant it.”

Asking for something together, in a symphonic way, is the way to build community. What is requested is suggested in the preceding ‘logion’, the conversion of the sinner, the possibility that the one who has left will be reinstated. If there is firm consensus, if the community lives in a symphonic way, with one heart, then prayer is able to unite others and draw the distant back to the community. "Where there are two or three gathered in my name, I am there, in their midst."

Let's not trivialize this phrase. It is not enough to be in the shadow of a steeple to join in the name of Jesus. They are not the meetings we do in the parish. To be united in the name of Jesus means to be one with him, it means that two or three people are deeply united to Jesus and among them there is an authentic, true community of affection, of relationship, of collaboration, of friendship.

Where there is a small community, truly united in Jesus, he is in the middle. The center of the Church is Jesus. Everything revolves around him, everything is based on him, he is the center of the community because he is the center of everyone's heart. And from this Jesus, who is in the center, derive the force to create good relationships, beginning with the forgiveness of offenses.

How many times do I have to forgive? Peter asks. And he thinks he's exaggerating by saying seven times and Jesus multiplies it to say an infinite number of times; seventy times seven. Forgiveness, the parable tells us, is granted at the beginning by the mercy of God, but the forgiven Christian has the opportunity to act like his Lord, that is, to forgive. If the forgiven Christian does not exercise forgiveness, he runs the risk of losing what has been given to him. Thus, the ecclesial discourse concludes with the danger of losing God's forgiveness if we do not exercise it, if we don't live like our heavenly Father.