Letter from the Pastor
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February 20, 2022It is not too early to get ready for Lent. In the Church’s old calendar three weeks before Lent was a time when people were slowly preparing for the Great Fast of Lent. The vestments were purple, the alleluia and Gloria were no longer heard. This all came from the days when Lent was a real fasting from the things the people enjoyed; a time when people took control and mastery over the wants and desires of the body. The Great Fast consisted of consuming no products from animals, i.e. no dairy, no meat etc. Try it and see how long you can last!
So it is a good spiritual practice to start thinking about your Lent. What spiritual practices are you going to add to your life, daily Mass, the rosary, the Stations of the Cross. What are you thinking about fasting, what are going to give up for Lent, don’t limit it to just food or drink. And finally, what acts of charity are going to do, volunteer your time and your talents, as well as your money. So we have a few more weeks to think and pray about Lent. Search your soul and see what you need to change about yourself, spiritually. Prepare now so when Ash Wednesday comes upon us on March 2nd, you will not be caught off guard. As the saying goes, it’s all in the preparation.
We have such a wonderful realistic faith, a flesh and blood type of faith. It is not a faith that is purely ethereal or living in a world of ideas. We acknowledge the things of this world. We celebrate the Precious Blood and the Body of Christ, we celebrate church buildings, we celebrate real people and their difficulties, we reflect on the blood and violence of the martyrs. We are not afraid of humanity, in its glory and its sinfulness. We even celebrate a chair!
On Tuesday, February 22nd we celebrate the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, which began around the Fourth Century. There are chairs, and then there are chairs: a recliner, a classroom chair, a chair in a waiting room, or one at a restaurant, your parents’ chairs, and of course Archie Bunker’s chair.
Then there are chairs, like the heroic-sized marble chair in the Lincoln Memorial or a judge’s chair in a courtroom or a throne for royalty. These are not ordinary chairs. They are seats of authority and judgment. They hold power more than people. We stand before the chairs while the judges or kings sit. The chair remains even when the judges and kings retire or die. We call the head of a company or committee, a chairman. In the Creed, we profess that Jesus is “seated” at God’s right hand. This fuller, symbolic meaning of the word “chair” is what the feast commemorates.
Against the farthest wall in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, high up on the wall, supported by the 4 great Doctors of the Church is the breath-taking sculpture by Bernini, it is a chair. It was created in 1647-53, it bears the following words: “O pastor of the Church, you feed all Christ's lambs and sheep,” (O Pastor Ecclesiae, tu omnes Christi pascis agnos et oves). Within the gigantic bronze chair sits a small 1st century, worm-eaten wooden chair, a chair that St. Peter sat on as the first bishop of Rome. There is another chair of Peter which is in Antioch.
To celebrate the Chair of St. Peter is to celebrate the unity of the Church. The chair is the symbol of Saint Peter’s authority, which were given him by Our Lord, that authority to loose and bind which is given to every successor of St. Peter, the Popes.
In every cathedral, there is a chair for the local bishop to sit upon to teach and to govern his diocese. In every church, there is a chair for the celebrant to sit and preside over the congregation. Up until modern times, a teacher would sit and teach; a bishop or priest would sit and preach, while the students and people would stand to listen. As the sermons and the lectures became longer, the people would be allowed to sit as well. In fact, the priest or bishop can still preach from the chair. Sometimes, you will see the Pope preaching while sitting down.
So the feast is not about furniture, rather what the chair symbolizes:The unity of the believers, united around the Chair of St. Peter.
