Homily by Prior, Fr. Anastasius Reiser, OSB
“I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.”
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
When I give someone a key, I give him or her a power of authority. Someone can either unlock the house, the office or a workshop.
But that also means that I trust the person to let someone in where I normally have a protected area.
We notice this especially when someone breaks into our house. It's not so much that people complain that things of value are missing or the amount of money that was taken. It's the feeling that someone has invaded my private sphere, my protected sphere.
Therefore, the area that we can lock and unlock is our area, the private area. And only members of our family, community, work colleagues or friends whom I trust are allowed to unlock here.
Also, in the Bible the image of the key is used to explain the access to heaven, to the kingdom of God.
2 Chronicles 7:13 “If I close heaven so that there is no rain, if I command the locust to devour the land, if I send pestilence among my people.”
What kind of places are these that God has closed and will open?
The Garden of Eden? The kingdom of God? The new Jerusalem?
Jesus felt that access to the Father, to the Kingdom of God, had become too difficult for the people. When he says to the Pharisees:
Mt 23:13 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.
He means that the rules, the laws of the Pharisees had become a burden and from there the entrance to heaven has been closed.
That Jesus keeps another entrance to heaven open for us; he says in the Gospel of John:
John 10:9 “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”
This means that through Jesus the door is open and the way to the kingdom of God is accessible again.
And just as we give a good friend permission to unlock our door and enter in together with us, so Jesus gives Peter the keys of the kingdom of God:
He says to his friend and disciple Peter:
"I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven."
And if we look into the tradition: Christ himself is this key: in Advent, a few days before Christmas, we sing the O - Antiphons:
O Antiphon - O Key of David
O Key of David and scepter of the House of Israel; you open and no one can shut; you shut and no one can open: Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house, those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.
(todays 1st reading: Isaiah, 22:19-23) The New Testament is thus “a door opener” for the kingdom of heaven. Heaven is open for us human beings.
We can often find this openness in the New Testament. For example, in
Revelation 21:25 About the coming light: “During the day its gates will never be shut, and there will be no night there.”
When the light is coming, when Christ is present, then there can be only light, then the doors can no longer be closed.
Jesus has opened a door for us and that it goes on through this door. To heaven. Maybe we haven't even discovered the door yet. But Jesus tells us: "I have opened a door for you that no one can slam or shut."