Lesson from Fr. Paulus | The Church Has a Mission

The most memorable words from today's Gospel passage are "rock" and "keys." "Rock" refers to the unshakable foundation he has given to his Church: the papacy.

"Keys" refer to the divinely guaranteed guidance and authority that the papacy will steadily provide about what we should believe and how we should live - faith and morals.

As St Augustine said: "Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia", where Peter [the papacy] is, there the Church is. This is why we call the pope Christ's Vicar on earth, the visible head of the Church.

This is also why it is hypocritical for Catholics to criticize, contradict, and disobey the pope and his official teaching. A "Pro-Choice Catholic," for example, is a contradiction in terms.

It's a Catholic who doesn't believe that God is guiding the Church through the popes and the bishops in communion with them, who have taught consistently and clearly that abortion is the killing of an innocent human life and can never be a legitimate choice.

Throughout history, some popes have been corrupt, weak, and sinful, but Jesus kept his promise. Those bad popes never dismantled the pure teaching of the Gospel, nor did they interrupt the flow of grace that the Holy Spirit continues to send through the sacraments.

But there is also a third memorable image in today's Gospel. After talking about the rock and the keys, Jesus says that "the gates of the netherworld" will not prevail against his Church.

The rock and the keys tell us how the Church is structured, but this phrase tells us what the Church does: it overthrows the kingdom of the devil, breaking down the gates of evil that closed upon the world after original sin.

The Church is no passive organization, no religious or social club; it has a mission. Being Catholic means being part of a spiritual army called and equipped by God to fight and conquer sin and evil.