The Key to Love

Turning the key to unlock our hearts to love others

08/23/2020

Matthew 16:13-20 Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

Someone sent me this joke a few weeks ago, but you have to listen carefully because it is subtle. Two beggars were sitting side by side on a street in Rome. One had a Cross in front of him; the other one was holding a Star of David. Many people went by, looked at the two beggars, but put money only into the hat of the beggar sitting behind the Cross. One day, a procession came past, and it included His Holiness, the Pope. He watched the people giving money to the beggar with the Cross while the people ignored the one with the Star of David.

After a few minutes the pope approached the beggar with the Star of David and explained: “My poor fellow, don’t you understand? This is a Catholic country. This city is the seat of Catholicism. People here aren’t going to give you money if you sit there with a Star of David in front of you, especially if you’re sitting next to a beggar who is holding a Cross. In fact, they would probably give more money to him just out of spite.” The beggar with the Star of David listened to the pope, smiled, and turned to the beggar with the Cross and said: “Bernie, look who’s trying to teach the Goldstein brothers about marketing!” Can you say: “Sucker!”

A little humor may help introduce our scriptures today that speak about His Holiness, the Pope, actually about the very first pope, St. Peter. Jesus bestowed a very particular power and privilege on Peter symbolized by the “Keys of the Kingdom.” Now, Peter’s Keys don’t help him tell which beggar is running a scam on him, but it does help him to discover Jesus’ true identity. Jesus is sort of the Divine Beggar who comes begging for our love. Peter’s Keys – like all good keys – unlock a very special door, namely, the door to Jesus’ heart. As Peter peers inside he can see who Jesus truly is as the Messiah, and ultimately, Peter can see Jesus’ deepest identity as the love of God on two legs, the Word made flesh.

Do you recall how a few verses before the bestowal of the Keys, Peter had professed who Jesus was while all other apostles stammered wild guesses? You see, the Keys grant Peter access into Jesus’ Heart, into his confidence, into his hidden plans and into his holy purposes. Throughout the gospels, Peter will share more intimately and more intensely than all the other apostles in Jesus’ ministry as the Messiah. This is why later tradition would call Peter and his successors the “Vicar of Christ,” that is, one who stands in the place of Christ.

How can Peter stand in the place of Christ? Well, because he holds the Keys to Jesus’ Sacred Heart, a Heart beating eternally with love. Peter’s Keys symbolize the power of the pope to unlock Jesus’ Heart, and release a torrent of divine love. How blessed we are in recent memory to have saintly popes – John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II – using the Keys to unlock the Heart of Christ and flooding the word in a deluge of divine love. This is the pope’s sacred power and his singular privilege, symbolized by his Keys.

My friends, I would suggest to you that we too, in a sense, possess a particular “power of the keys.” What do I mean? Obviously, I am not talking about our house keys and our car keys. And clearly, we don’t carry the Keys of the Vicar of Christ, the pope, who alone can open the Heart of Christ. Nonetheless, we have the key to our own hearts, and our “personal keys” possess a similar power to the papal keys, because only we can unlock our own heart and unleash our own love. Lovers only give to each other the key to their heart. It said in the first reading from Isaiah 22: “When he opens, no one shall shut; when he shuts, no one shall open.” That is, each person alone has the key to open our own hearts and love others, or to lock our hearts and bottle up our love. That’s the power of our keys that we possess.

Let me give you some examples of how we can “open and shut” our hearts. For example, we have the power to unlock our hearts and love those in the LGBTQ community (gays, homosexuals, lesbians), or we can lock up our hearts and leave them out. Our keys can unlock our hearts and love those who have been the victims of racism and social and economic inequality, or we can shut our hearts and refuse to love them. We keys can unlock our hearts to love and pray for both presidential candidates from both parties, or we can shut our hearts and criticize and vilify those of the opposing party. Our keys can open our hearts to love the beggars on the street whether they hold a Star of David or a Cross in their hand, and not lock our hearts from them, even if they are trying to scam us.

In other words, we, too, have been bestowed, in a similar but not in exactly the same way as St. Peter, with a very powerful key, a key to a heart that we can open and flood the world with our love. Or we can shut that heart to the world. In that sense, we, too, are “vicars of Christ,” (vicars with a small “v”). Jesus gave St. Peter and his successors the Keys of the Kingdom, which are the Keys to his Sacred Heart. And we can give Jesus the key to our hearts so he can love others through us. Only lovers give each other the keys to their hearts.

Praised be Jesus Christ!