Please read this passage before reading the homily.

My sisters and brothers,

Jesus founded his Church on the rock of Simon Peter’s faith.  Jesus had given Simon the name Peter.  Peter is the English form of the name, derived from the Latin word for rock.  Peter, then, is the rock of foundation.

Builders, when they build, need to get down to rock bottom, below the dirt, so that they build on solid foundations.  If they cannot find rock, then they must use concrete or some similar substance to make a foundation as strong as, or stronger than, rock.

Rock, being hard and substantial, has another property.  It can cause injury to people who stumble and fall on it.  In today’s reading, Jesus calls Peter, who is the Rock of Foundation, another name, the obstacle rock.  Peter the Foundation had become Peter the rock that causes damage.  Peter is both holy and broken, as we likewise are.

We are built upon rock and have become rock-hard in our Christian faith. We must be careful, however, that we not become a rock of scandal, a rock that bruises and crushes.  We are holy, but we are also frail.

In the year 70 AD, the Christian believers in Jesus did not support the Jewish people in their defense of Jerusalem against the Roman army.  Throughout history we Christian people have persecuted our Jewish brothers and sisters.

Over the years, we Christian people, although formed into the Rock of Peter’s faith, have crushed people into slavery, as in the Americas, or colonized them into poverty throughout the world.  We have at times burnt shrines to other gods, or worshipped the gods of our own desires financially, militarily, greedily, arrogantly, and mercilessly in order to build up our own fortunes and kingdoms.

We still do this when our laws deny human babies the means of growing before birth or after by depriving them of medical, nutrition, childcare, and other things that infants and growing children need.  We do this whenever we allow depriving indigenous peoples and minorities of sacred land or affordable jobs and housing.  We do this when we allow our laws and economies to further enrich the wealthy and further impoverish the poor and minority groups.  We do this when we are selfish, as individuals or as a society.  We share the rock of Peter’s faith, but often we also share the rock of obstacle and division that crushes bruises and maims.

We should rejoice in sharing the faith of Peter, but we must repent of being the rock of obstacle, scandal, harm and unbelief.  We are both holy and frail, a rock of faith and a stumbling rock, a person of faith among a society that needs faith.