Thursday:     The Chair of Saint Peter the Apostle.
Date:         February 22, 2018.
Year:         B
The readings: [1 Peter 5:1-4; Mt. 16:13-19]
The message:  Tend the flock of God that is in your charge.
Prepared by:  Catholic Doors Ministry.
Total words:  922

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My brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the Chair of Saint Peter the Apostle. This Feast commemorates first of all the papacy and secondly Saint Peter as the first Bishop of Rome.

The Chair of Saint Peter is also known as the Throne of Saint Peter.

This special Feast teaches us that the papacy, the Head of the Catholic Church, is a Divinely commissioned mission of teacher and pastor that was bestowed by Jesus Christ upon Peter, this leadership role having continued in an unbroken line down to the present Pope.

In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI described the chair as "a symbol of the special mission of Peter and his Successors to tend to Christ’s flock, keeping it united in faith and in charity." To achieve this goal, the Pope of the time is called to respect and defend the non-changing tradition that abounds in spiritual treasures that were handed down from generation to generation over the centuries.

The "Chair" is the "cathedra" of St. Peter's Basilica. Cathedra is a Latin word that means "chair" or "throne". It denominates the "chair" or "seat" of a bishop, hence "cathedral" denominates the Bishop's church in an episcopal see. The Popes formerly used the Chair. It is distinct from the Papal Cathedra in St. John Lateran Archbasilica, also in Rome, which is the actual cathedral church of the Pope.

The "Holy See" (Latin: Sancta Sedes, "holy seat") is the office of the Bishop of Rome, that is, the Pope. The term Holy See also means the Pope and the Roman Curia, the central government of the Roman Catholic Church. The word "See" is synonymous to "diocese." As such, the "Holy See" is the Diocese of the Pope.

Early martyrologies indicate that two liturgical feasts were celebrated in Rome, centuries before the time of Charles the Bald, in honour of earlier chairs associated with Saint Peter, one of which was kept in the baptismal chapel of St. Peter's Basilica, the other at the catacomb of Priscilla. The dates of these celebrations were January 18th and February 22nd. No surviving chair has been identified with either of these chairs. The Feasts thus became associated with an abstract understanding of the "Chair of Peter", which by synecdoche signifies the episcopal office of the Pope as Bishop of Rome, an office considered to have been first held by Saint Peter, and thus extended to the diocese, the See of Rome. Though both feasts were originally associated with Saint Peter's stay in Rome, the ninth-century form of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum associated the January 18th Feast with his stay in Rome, and the February 22nd Feast with his stay at Antioch. The two Feasts were included in the Tridentine Calendar with the rank of Double, which Pope Clement VIII raised in 1604 to the newly invented rank of Greater Double.

In 1960 Pope John XXIII removed from the General Roman Calendar the January 18th Feast of the Chair of Peter, along with seven other Feast days that were second Feasts of a single saint or mystery. The February 22nd celebration became a Second-Class Feast. This calendar was incorporated in the 1962 Roman Missal of Pope John XXIII, whose continued use Pope Benedict XVI authorized under the conditions indicated in his motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. The traditionalist Catholics who do not accept the changes made by Pope John XXIII continue to celebrate both Feast days: "Saint Peter's Chair at Rome" on January 18th and the "Chair of Saint Peter at Antioch" on February 22nd. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org]

What is the spiritual meaning of the Feast that the Church celebrates today?

According to Pope Benedict: This is a very ancient tradition, proven to have existed in Rome since the fourth century. On it we give thanks to God for the mission he entrusted to the Apostle Peter and his Successors. "Cathedra" literally means the established seat of the Bishop, placed in the mother church of a diocese which for this reason is known as a "cathedral"; it is the symbol of the Bishop's authority and in particular, of his "magisterium", that is, the evangelical teaching which, as a successor of the Apostles, he is called to safeguard and to transmit to the Christian Community...

The See of Rome, after St Peter's travels, thus came to be recognized as the See of the Successor of Peter, and its Bishop's "cathedra" represented the mission entrusted to him by Christ to tend his entire flock...

Celebrating the "Chair" of Peter, therefore, as we are doing today, means attributing a strong spiritual significance to it and recognizing it as a privileged sign of the love of God, the eternal Good Shepherd, who wanted to gather His whole Church and lead her on the path of salvation [General Audience, Feb. 22, 2006]. [Source: http://www.ncregister.com]

A question frequently asked, "Does the pope have to sit in the physical Chair of Peter in order to be infallible?"

No. Although the pope's infallible pronouncements are called ex cathedra (Latin to mean "from the chair") statements, he does not have to be sitting in the physical chair. In fact, he doesn't have to be seated at all. He simply has to use the fullness of his authority as the successor of Peter to define a particular matter pertaining to faith or morals.

This use of the full extent of his teaching authority is referred to figuratively, as him speaking "from the chair" of St. Peter. It's a figurative expression, not a reference to the physical object. [Source: http://www.ncregister.com]

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The readings...

[The readings were taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (C) 1989 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the United States of America.]

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First Reading...

"Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it — not for sordid gain but eagerly. Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away." [1 Peter 5:1-4]

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Gospel Reading...

"When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?'

And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.'

Jesus said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.' And Jesus answered him, 'Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.'

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.'" [Mt. 16:13-19]

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