I rejoice, beloved, in the religious affection of your devotion, and I give thanks to God that I recognize in you the piety of Christian unity. For, as your very throng bears witness, you understand that the recurrence of this day pertains to a common joy, and that the honor of the whole flock is celebrated through the annual feasts of the shepherd. For although the whole Church of God is ordered in distinct ranks, that the integrity of the sacred body may subsist of diverse members, yet all of us, as the Apostle says, are one in Christ (Gal. 3:28);
nor is anyone so divided from the office of another that the lowliness of any portion does not pertain to the connection of the head. In the unity, therefore, of faith and of baptism, our fellowship is undivided, beloved, and our dignity is common, according to that word of the most blessed apostle Peter, speaking with most sacred voice: And you yourselves, as living stones, are built up into spiritual houses, a holy priesthood, offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ; and below: But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of acquisition (1 Pet. 2:5, 9). For the sign of the cross makes all who are regenerated in Christ to be kings, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit consecrates them priests:
so that, besides this special service of our ministry, all spiritual and reasonable Christians may recognize themselves to be of the royal race and partakers of the priestly office. For what is so kingly as for a mind subject to God to be the ruler of its own body? And what is so priestly as to vow to the Lord a pure conscience, and to offer the spotless victims of piety from the altar of the heart? And although this has been made common to all through the grace of God, yet it is a religious and praiseworthy thing for you to rejoice over the day of our advancement as over your own honor;
so that one sacrament of the pontificate may be celebrated in the whole body of the Church, which, when the ointment of blessing was poured out, flowed abundantly indeed into the higher parts, yet not sparingly descended also into the lower. Since, therefore, beloved, we have great matter of common rejoicing from the partnership of this office, yet a truer and more excellent cause of rejoicing will be ours, if you do not tarry in the consideration of our lowliness;
since it is much more profitable and much more worthy to lift the keenness of the mind to the contemplation of the glory of the most blessed apostle Peter, and to celebrate this day chiefly in veneration of him who was flooded with such abundant streams from the very fountain of all gifts, that, though he alone received many things, nothing passed to anyone without his participation. The Word made flesh was already dwelling among us (John 1:14), and Christ had spent himself wholly upon the restoring of the human race. Nothing was unordered to his wisdom, nothing arduous to his power. The elements served, spirits ministered, angels waited upon him, nor could that sacrament in any way be ineffectual, which the unity of the Godhead itself, and the Trinity, together wrought.
And yet, out of the whole world, Peter alone is chosen, who should be set before both the calling of all nations and all the apostles and all the Fathers of the Church: that, although in the people of God there be many priests and many shepherds, yet Peter should properly govern all whom Christ also governs preeminently. A great and wondrous fellowship of his power, beloved, the divine condescension bestowed upon this man; and if it willed anything to be common to the other princes with him, it never gave save through him whatever it did not deny to others. In short, the Lord asks all the apostles what men think of him; and as long as the human ambiguity of ignorance is being unfolded, the speech of those who answer is shared in common.
But when it is required what the sense of the disciples is, he is first in confession of the Lord who is first in apostolic dignity. When he had said: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus answered him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven (Matt. 16:16, 17); that is, therefore art thou blessed, because my Father taught thee, and no earthly opinion deceived thee, but heavenly inspiration instructed thee: and not flesh nor blood, but he whose only-begotten Son I am, declared me to thee. And I, he says, say unto thee: that is, as my Father manifested to thee my divinity, so I also make known to thee thine excellence: Thou art Peter:
that is, since I am the inviolable rock, I the corner-stone who make both one, I the foundation besides which no one can lay another (Eph. 2:14, 20); yet thou too art a rock, because thou art made firm by my strength, that those things which are mine by my own power may be common to thee with me by participation. And upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18). Upon this strength, he says, I will erect an eternal temple, and the loftiness of my Church, to be carried up to heaven, shall rise upon the firmness of this faith. The gates of hell shall not hold this confession, the bonds of death shall not bind it: for this voice is the voice of life.
And as it raises its confessors into heavenly things, so it plunges its deniers into the regions below. For which reason it is said to the most blessed Peter: To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven (Matt. 16:19). The right of this power passed indeed also to the other apostles, and the institution of this decree extended to all the princes of the Church; but not in vain is that committed to one which is intimated to all. For to Peter this is therefore singularly entrusted, because the figure of Peter is set before all the rulers of the Church. The privilege of Peter, therefore, abides wherever judgment is rendered out of his equity.
Neither excessive severity nor excessive laxity exists where nothing shall be bound, nothing loosed, save what blessed Peter has either loosed or bound. Now, when His Passion was at hand, the Lord—foreseeing that it would shake the steadfastness of the disciples—said: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not. And do you, when at length you are converted, strengthen your brethren, that you enter not into temptation" (Luke 22:31-32). The peril arising from the temptation of fear was common to all the apostles, and they alike stood in need of the help of divine protection, since the devil desired to harass them all, to crush them all;
and yet a special care for Peter is undertaken by the Lord, and prayer is made specifically for Peter's faith, as though the state of the others would be more secure if the mind of their chief were not overcome. In Peter, therefore, the fortitude of all is fortified, and the help of divine grace is so ordered that the firmness which is granted to Peter through Christ is conferred upon the apostles through Peter.
Since, therefore, beloved, we see so great a safeguard divinely established for us, we rejoice rightly and justly in the merits and dignity of our leader, giving thanks to the everlasting King, our Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ, that He gave so great a power to him whom He made prince of the whole Church; so that if anything in our own times is rightly done through us and rightly ordered, it is to be attributed to his works and to his governance—to him to whom it was said: "And do you, when converted, strengthen your brethren"; and to whom, after His resurrection, when Peter thrice professed his eternal love, the Lord said with mystical meaning: "Feed my sheep" (John 21:17).
This too he undoubtedly does even now, and as a devout shepherd carries out the command of the Lord, strengthening us by his exhortations and not ceasing to pray for us, that we may be overcome by no temptation. But if, as we must believe, he extends this care of his devotion everywhere to all the people of God, how much more will he deign to bestow his aid upon us, his own nurslings, among whom, upon the sacred couch of his blessed repose, he rests in the same flesh in which he once presided? To him, then, let us ascribe this day, the birthday of our service; to him let us ascribe this feast, by whose patronage we have been counted worthy to be sharers of his very see—the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ aiding us in all things, who lives and reigns with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen.