IFTTT Autopost 
On this 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, we hear about the formal beginning of the Church (Matthew 16: 13-20). After Jesus asked his disciples “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”, Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
In reply, Jesus said, “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.”
From this Scripture, the early Christians honored Peter as the first pope. Though Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, the pope is the earthly representative of Christ. For over 2,100 years, we have honored Christ’s representatives and pray that they will be good representatives of Christ. Through our more than 2,000-year history, we have had some very holy and wise popes, and we have had some very terrible ones. That is what happens when dealing with humans.
As followers of Christ, we pray not only for the current pope to be blessed with wisdom and love, but also all the leaders of the Church on earth now and in the future.
