There is just
so much noise.
A million voices
ricochet around us
spreading confusion
and misinformation.
We hear so much
that claims to be news
but isn't.
It's fake news.
And that which is called
"fake news"
sometimes turns out
to be true.
And we don't know
what to believe.
[PAUSE]
We don't know
what to believe
until we hear a voice
"Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the Living God."
A moment of clarity.
The clouds of confusion part.
Not St John the Baptist.
Nor Elias.
Nor Jeremiah.
Nor another prophet.
But the Christ!
Peter's words
might just be more words
among so many.
Just another statement
of fake news.
What makes them different?
[PAUSE]
It's the truth!
If Our Lord tells us
that He will rise from the dead
and then does so.
If He preaches,
and then backs up His words
with miracles.
If He touches the hearts of people
and inspires them to love
and go to their deaths for love,
then He is telling the truth.
His is the voice
that we should believe.
And St Peter
confirms that with his words.
In St Peter,
there is clarity
a rock on which the Faith will grow.
Christ the chief cornerstone of the Church
and Peter the rock.
And to St Peter
are given keys
the authority to bind
and loose sins.
That authority
isn't given to St Peter alone
for St John tells us
that it is given to all the Disciples
when the Lord
breathes the Holy Ghost on them.
St Peter has the truth
as do the other apostles.
And as does St Paul.
[PAUSE]
St Paul,
the zealous Pharisee
is given the truth
that blinds him for a while.
He is blinded to
the cacophony of sights
which,
like the noise,
disrupt and confuse our lives.
The blindness of St Paul
helps him to be
refocused on the truth,
a truth which he once thought
unpalatable
but now defends
with his every breath,
with his every word.
And to him
is given authority
to bind and loose sins
as he becomes
one of the first bishops
to receive episcopal consecration
at the hands of the Apostles.
He is given the authority
of the Truth
to cut through the swathes
of falsehood
through the doctrine
he has received through
the grace of Christ.
[PAUSE]
For us,
the noise is louder than ever.
False gospels are being preached.
The truth is supposedly
being debunked.
The saints are still being
contradicted
and even vilified.
For us,
there is much confusion
and disharmony.
But for us,
there is also truth
a truth which grounds our Faith.
Our Faith begins
when we say with St Peter
to the face of the man Jesus
"Thou art the Christ
the Son of the Living God."
That is where we put our trust.
That is where we ground
our knowledge,
our belief,
our faith.
And we grow
by reading the first writte documents
of our faith
which are the letters of St Paul:
Gospel written before
the gospels.
This is how we cut through
all the noise.
We shut it out
and listen to the Holy Apostles
for they speak with greater clarity
than the world can know
and yet wants to prevent us
from knowing.
Jesus truly is the Christ
the Son of the Living God.
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