2026 Cycle A - 21st Sunday in Ordinary

Readings

21st Sunday in Ordinary

Isa 22:19-23; Ps 138:1-2a, 2b-3, 6, 8; Rom 11:33-36; Matt 16:13-20

Homily Theme 

The Ultimate Authority

In the social world we live under secular Authority and in the spiritual world we live under Divine Authority. In our secular society we have leaders: whether they may be Kings, Prime Ministers, or Presidents. In a democracy we have elected officials and those with the Authority to implement and enforce their laws. The Ultimate Authority for both is God. If our Civil Communities require such a structure, so too does the Church, which is a World Wide community of over a billion and a quarter people.  This does not include those of other Faiths.

This Church was founded by Christ who has reminded us to Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are God’s. In the first reading this week, Isaiah gives an example of Authority being passed on to another with the power to bind and to loose. Eliakim receives the Keys of Authority of the kingdom of David. He is to be the father of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and of the House of Judah. When He opens no one shall shut when, he shuts one shall open. He had the Ultimate Authority in the Kingdom.

Today, in the second reading, St. Paul asks, “Who has known the mind of God?” Only those, to whom God revealed it: we have an example of this kind of revelation to Simon Peter in today’s Gospel. Throughout the Church’s 2017 year history, God has revealed other truths to be bound on earth which are bound also in heaven: such as, which books were to be in the New Testament and included in the Bible; the Holy Trinity of the Godhead; the two Natures of Christ and the seven Sacraments are just a few of those infallible truths that have been infallibly defined and bound on earth by the power of those Keys, which only the Church has Ultimate Authority to do. 

The Church has a hierarchy of Authority on earth but The Ultimate Authority in the Church has been given by Jesus to Peter in today’s Gospel when he correctly answered Christ’s question about who He was. Jesus tells Him that it is a Divine Revelation that He has received since flesh and blood could not reveal it to him. Jesus changes the name of Simon (Reed) to Peter (Rock) and bestows upon him the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, with authority to bind and to loose on earth. Every Pope since Peter has received this same Authority when chosen by the Holy Spirit in Conclave as Peter’s successor. Conclave means with the Keys. Those who reject the Ultimate Authority of the successor of St. Peter are rejecting the Divine Truths confirmed by the one true Church confirmed by Christ Himself: who was and still is The Ultimate Authority   and Judge of the Real & final Supreme Court.