The Petrine Confession

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JMJ

Wednesday in Easter Week

In today's Epistle (Acts 3.13-15,17-19), we hear the following from the second sermon of St. Peter the Apostle, filled with the Holy Ghost (4.8), at the porch of Solomon in the Jewish Temple :

The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob… hath glorified His Son Jesus… (v.13): The Prince of the Apostles testifies once more to the truth of the Resurrection of the Son of man – the promised Messias Who, according to the Prophet Isaias, was to suffer and die (cf., Ch. 53) for sin (v.10). Proof: The man who was lame from his mother’s womb and daily sat at the gate of the Temple to beg was given… perfect soundness…. In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth (Acts 3.1,6). The dead has no power to communicate bodily wellness even more so at the mere invocation of his name. But by pointing out first the power of the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob – the God, according to Our Savior, of the living and not of the dead – over the dead body of the Son of Man, the logical conclusion of the Apostle’s parallelism: In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, it is the divine power that is operative for only the divine works the miraculous – in this case, the instantaneous bringing to life of the man’s dead lower limbs; however, by perfect soundness, the Name of Jesus effected much more (that is, spiritual life) just as the living God effected much more than a physical resurrection (He hath glorified the Body). The Apostle, in verses 14 and 15 below, does not mince words and categorically professes of Jesus Christ what his conclusion begs for with explicitness.  

… He [Pilate] judged [Jesus] should be released… Jesus Christ hath done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in His mouth, as the Prophet Isaias spoke of the Messias in His Passion (53.9). The Synagogue pressed for a most cruel death upon the Innocent and forced the juridical authority, who thrice insisted on the innocence of the bound Messias as the bound Paschal Lamb, to succumb to the principle of the (perverted) greatest number deciding what is true and false and what is good and evil.

… You denied the Holy One…. The Author of life you killed… (vv.14,15): St. Peter confesses unabashedly that Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the promised Messias, is both true God (the Author of life and the Holy One – that is, the Lord Redeemer of Israel, Is. 49.7) and true Man (you killed). He belies the charge of ‘blasphemy’ of the Synagogue (which blindly insisted - and still blindly insists – that ‘the Son of the carpenter’ was only a man) when Our Lord confessed that He was God in categorically claiming for Himself the title of the Son of God.  

… Be penitent, therefore, and be coverted, that your sins may be blotted out (v.19). To the adherents of the Synagogue, the Prince of the Apostles has this exhortation unto their salvation: be penitent… be converted – neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved! (Acts 4.12). In his first sermon addressed to both Jews and heathen:  Do penance, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins (Acts 2.38). Thus is the consistent voice of the Chair of Peter… until Vatican II.

Related posts: "Our Lady and the New Ecumenical Orientation in Rome", "Vatican II and Freemasonry on 'Religious Liberty'". See also: "Catholic Resistance, Not Disobedience".