Rocky Johnson's Church

This weekend we hear the Gospel about Jesus asking the disciples who they think He is. Peter had the right answer (this time). He told Jesus, "You're the Christ!" Because of his correct answer, Jesus moved him to the game show bonus round. "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah (John). Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter (Rock), and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it." Fr. Don Springman, a retired priest for our Archdiocese of Louisville argues that when Jesus changed Simon's name to Peter, then the Church became founded on a guy nicknamed Rocky Johnson. I like Fr. Don's interpretation. Everyone can feel at home in a Church led by a "Rocky Johnson".


That is the intrigue of the Church formed by Jesus, and built upon the "solid" rock of Peter and the other first disciples. While Jesus was the Son of God, but totally human in all ways except for sin, the Apostles and first men and women to follow Christ were very human. This same "Rock" also had "foot in mouth" disease. Just seconds later Simon Peter gets reprimanded by Christ for telling Him that He can't be the long awaited Savior of all humanity by suffering and dying on the cross. In fact Jesus calls Peter "Satan" because he couldn't grasp the way that Jesus had to save us. We also know well the story of Peter denying Jesus three times while He was going through His suffering and death. The other disciples were like Peter in their faults. Mary, Jesus' closest female disciple and friend, was perhaps a prostitute. Matthew was a hated tax collector. We know very little about most of the other named Apostles except for the unverified legends that surround them after the Resurrection, Pentecost and Ascension. Yet, Jesus found our Church on their "Rocky" faith.

We are God's Rocky Johnson(s) now. As feeble and flawed as we know we are, God's Son and Spirit are telling us "upon you, I will build my Church." Even though we may think our faith is as stable as quick sand, or as dangerous as molten lava, or even non existent, God has "wisely" put His faith in us to reach a broken, flawed, unstable, and tumultuous world of people just like us.

In order to fulfill the Divine Mission that God has set in place it is not important to constantly think about who we think we are. Like Peter we are called to focus our attention on who Jesus is and who Jesus knows we are. In His eyes and mind we are "the Rock", not rocky; we are God's children, not the spawn of Satan; we are holy and beloved, not worthless and mistake prone; we are Christ's helping hands, feet, mind, heart, eyes, ears, BODY. The world needs Christ! The world needs us to be as Christ!

I'll end with a story I found this week that I found inspirational to me.

peace,
Fr. Chuck

WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?
IN THE EARLY DAYS of civil rights legislation taking hold in the American South, an African American woman, Norah Jones, boarded a crowded bus, paid her fare, and found that the only free seat was next to a well-dressed white woman about her own age. That woman stiffened a bit with an insincere smile as she sat down but showed no other reaction.

Norah began to ask herself: “Who do you think you are sitting up here? I’m nothing but an old black woman. No money to speak of. Not much education. Norah, who do you think you are?” She closed her eyes and, as she often did, sank into prayer. She began to hear words from the Bible, like “you are the temple of the Holy Spirit.” She sat a little straighter in her seat. “You are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you.” She’d heard that the previous Sunday and sat a bit taller still.

Finally the voice inside said, “What we will later be we do not know, but we are God’s children now.” Positively bursting, she looked at her startled companion and with a joyful and loving smile and said, “You probably don’t know who you’re sitting next to, do you?”
–Father Larry Janowski, O.F.M.