翻译|Carrie
 

朋友们，今天的福音详细说明了伯多禄声明的重要性，因为教会正是建立于这一天启的声明。注意，教会并非建立于变幻无常、举棋不定的舆论之上，也不是建立于千载难逢的凡人圣洁之上，而是建立于伯多禄天启的权威之上——对此，我表示：“感谢天主！”

 

我们这个声明既令人不安又非比寻常：伯多禄及其继任者正是通过圣神特赐的神恩来统治教会的。我知道我的读者中有很多新教教友，而这篇福音一直以来都是天主教徒和新教徒之间的绊脚石。让我阐明至关重要的一点。

 

伯多禄的声明重点是什么？是耶稣的身份。这才是教会立足的磐石。我们并不是说伯多禄的所有实际决定、所有发言都是正确的，而是说他正确道出了耶稣的身份：既是人，又是永生天主之子。这就是整个教会的来源和根据。

 

Friends, today’s Gospel spells out the importance of Peter’s confession. For it is upon this inspired confession that the Church is built. Not, mind you, on popular opinion, which is shifting and indecisive, and not on personal holiness, which is all too rare. It is built upon the inspired authority of Peter—and I say, "thank God!"

 

We make this troubling and extraordinary claim that it is through a special charism of the Spirit that Peter and his successors govern the Church. Now, I realize that I have many Protestant readers and that this text has been, between Catholics and Protestants, a stumbling block. Let me clarify what is and is not at stake here.

 

What is the focus of Peter’s confession? It has to do with who Jesus is. This is the rock upon which the Church is built. We don’t say for a moment that all of Peter’s practical decisions are right, that everything he says is right. But we are saying that he is right about who Jesus is: a man who is also the Son of the living God. And this is the source and ground of the whole operation.