August 15

“Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father.” Matthew 16:17

It may seem strange to us that at this point the Lord should identify Peter as the son of Jonah. What relevance had Peter’s human father here? It was the Father in heaven who had shown to him who Jesus was. The light he had received so clearly was not a matter of human instruction or insight. In this matter at least, Peter’s earthly paternity seems of no concern at all.

The only purpose which Jesus could have had was to single out Peter in a specially individual way. This Simon, Jonah’s son and no other, was the one on whom divine illumination had dawned. Such a revelation of Christ to our hearts is always intensely personal. The Church is not a company of people who copy or borrow from one another, but of those who, like Peter, have firsthand experience of the Father in heaven.