The Church Is Inseparable from Jesus | Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P. reflects on Matthew 16 and Peter’s confession that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Peter does not discover Christ’s identity through his own reasoning, preferences, or convictions. Jesus tells him that “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.”

The same principle applies to the Church. We do not understand bishops, the hierarchy, or the sacramental order merely through our personal opinions about the people who occupy those offices.

Christ instituted the Church. Christ established her hierarchy. Christ instituted the sacraments through which He gives us grace and salvation.

To understand the Church, we must begin with Jesus.