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Shepherd Template FROM THE FATHERS “THE FOUNDATIONS of this Church are on the holy mountains, since it is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. One of these mountains was indeed Peter, upon which rock the Lord promised to build his Church. Truly indeed and by highest right are sublime and elevated souls, souls which raise themselves above earthly things, called ‘mountains.’ The soul of the blessed Peter was called a lofty rock because he had a strong mooring in the Faith and bore constantly and bravely the blows inflicted by temptations. All, therefore, who have acquired an understanding of the Godhead … are the peaks of mountains, and upon them the house of God is built.” Saint Basil the Great, + 379 A.D. “GREAT is the grace of Christ, who has imparted almost all His own names to His disciples. ‘I am,’ said He, ‘the light of the world,’ and yet with that very name in which He glories, He favoured His disciples, saying, ‘Ye are the light of the world.’ ‘I am the living bread;’ and ‘we all are one bread’ (1 Cor. 10:17)… Christ is the rock, for ‘they drank of the same spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ’ (1 Cor. 10:4); also He denied not to His disciple the grace of this name; that he should be Peter, because he has from the rock (petra) the solidity of constancy, the firmness of faith. Make an effort, therefore, to be a rock! Do not seek the rock outside of yourself, but within yourself! Your rock is your deed, your rock is your mind. Upon this rock your house is built. Your rock is your faith, and faith is 1 the foundation of the Church. If you are a rock, you will be in the Church, because the Church is on a rock. If you are in the Church the gates of hell will not prevail against you… He who has conquered the flesh is a foundation of the Church; and if he cannot equal Peter, he can imitate him.” Saint Ambrose of Milan, +397 A.D. “YOU will say, ‘it was on Peter that the Church was founded.’ Well, in another place (Matt. 18:18; John 20:22-23), the same is accorded to all the Apostles, and all receive the keys of the king- dom of heaven, and the strength of the Church depends equally on all of them; but one among the twelve is chosen to be their head in order to remove any occasion for division.” Ven. Jerome of Stridonium, + 420 A.D. “LIKEWISE He shares His glory with His people, giving us a participation in almost everything, even in His names. Just as He is called the Strength of God, so He deigns to be our strength, too: God is our Refuge and our Strength. As we are His heirs, so He is ours, for you read in the book of Moses: The people of Jacob are become the Lord’s portion; and again in the Psalms: The Lord is my portion. Just as He called Himself the Light of this world, so He said to His own: You are the light of this world. Again, He says: I am the living bread; and: We are all one bread. Elsewhere He states: I am the true Vine; and to you He says: I planted thee a fruitful vine, all true. Christ is the mountain of God, in which God is well pleased to dwell, and His saints are the mountains of God, fruitful mountains, from which He enlighteneth us wonderfully from the everlasting moun- tains. Christ is the rock, for they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. The favour of this name, too, He did not refuse to His disciple; He says to him: Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. But why are we surprised that He granted 2 His names to His servants, when He shares even His Father and His kingship with them? For to those who received Him, He gave them power to be made the sons of God.” Saint Paulinus of Nola, +431 A.D. “PETER bears the character of the Church, which has the power to forgive sins and to lead men from Hades to the heavenly kingdom… All the Apostles also bear the type of the whole Church, since they also have received a like power of forgiving sins. They bear also the character of the patriarchs, who by the word of preaching spiritually brought forth God’s people in the whole world… The wise man who built his house upon the rock signifies the faithful teacher, who has established the foundations of his doctrine and life upon Christ. Saint Isidore of Seville, + 636 A.D. “THOU ART PETER; and upon this rock I will build my Church (Matt. 16:18). Peter, who before was called Simon, receives from the Lord the name of Peter, because of the strength and constancy of his faith; for with a firm and tenacious soul he clung to Him of Whom it was written, And the rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4). And upon this Rock, that is upon the Lord Saviour, Who gave to him who knew Him, loved Him, and confessed Him, the privilege of sharing His name, namely that he should be called Peter after Petra (the Rock), upon Which the Church is built. For only through faith and the love of Christ, through receiving the Mysteries of the Church, through keeping the commandments of Christ, can we come to share in the lot of the elect and attain to eternal life, as the Apostle testifies when he says:For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ(1 Cor. 3:11).” Ven. Bede of Jarrow, + 735 A.D. ❇❇❇❇❇❇❇ 3 Homily on the Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul Saint Augustine of Hippo TODAY the Holy Church piously remembers the sufferings of the Holy Glorious and All-Praised Apostles Peter and Paul. Saint Peter, the fervent follower of Jesus Christ, for the profound confession of His Divinity: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” was deemed worthy by the Saviour to hear in answer, “Blessed art thou, Simon ... I tell thee, that thou art Peter [Petrus], and on this rock [petra] I will build My Church” (Matt.16:16-18). “This rock,” is that which thou sayest: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” It is on this thy confession I build My Church. Regarding the “thou art Peter,” it is from the “Rock” [Christ] that Peter is [named], and not from Peter that the “Rock” exists, just as the Christian is from Christ, and not Christ from the Christian. Do you want to know, from what sort of “rock” the Apostle Peter was named? Hear the Apostle Paul: “Brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant,” says the Apostle of Christ, “how all our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1Cor.10:1-4). Here is the derivation of Peter’s being a “rock.” Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the final days of His earthly life, in the days of His mission to the race of man, chose from among the disciples His twelve Apostles to preach the Word of God. 4 Among them, the Apostle Peter for his fiery ardour was vouchsafed to occupy the first place (Mt. 10:2) and to be as it were the representative person for all the Church. Therefore it is said to him, preferentially, after the confession: “I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in the heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth: shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt. 16:19). It was not one man, but rather the One, Universal Church, that received these “keys” and the right “to bind and loose.” And that it was actually the Church that received this right, and not exclusively a single person, turn your attention to another place of the Scriptures, where the same Lord says to all His Apostles, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit” and further after this, “Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them: and whosesoever sins ye retain, are retained” (John 20:22-23); or: “Whatsoever ye shall bind upon the earth, shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosened in heaven” (Mt. 18:18). Thus, it is the Church that binds, the Church that loosens; the Church, built upon the foundational cornerstone, Jesus Christ Himself (Eph. 2:20), binds and looses. Let both the binding and the loosing be feared: the loosing, in order not to fall under this again; the binding, in order not to remain forever in this condition. Therefore “iniquities ensnare a man, and everyone is bound in the chains of his own sins,” says Wisdom (Prov. 5:22); and except for in the Holy Church nowhere is it possible to receive the loosing. After His Resurrection the Lord entrusted the Apostle Peter to shepherd His spiritual flock not because that among the disciples only Peter alone deserved to shepherd the flock of Christ, but Christ addresses Himself chiefly to Peter because Peter was first among the Apostles and as such the represen- tative of the Church; besides which, having turned in this instance to Peter alone, as to the chief Apostle, Christ by this confirms the unity of the Church.
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