Pope Leo & Petrine Primacy

The following sermon is taken from Leo The Great: Sermons (Fathers of the Church Patristic Series), published by The Catholic University of America Press Publication in 1996, pp. 25-29. All emphasis is mine.

Sermon 4

29 September 444

I rejoice, dearly beloved, in the pious affection that arises from your devotion. I thank God that I can sense a dedication to Christian unity among you. To judge from your assembly here, you clearly realize that the recurrence of this day has a bearing upon our collective jubilation and that the annual feasts of the shepherd celebrate the honor of the entire flock.

Although the Church of God as a whole has a hierarchical structure, so that the completeness of the sacred body consists in a diversity of members, "we are," nevertheless, as the Apostle says, "one in Christ.”³⁴ No one functions so independently of another that even the lowliest part does not have some relationship with the Head to which it is connected. In the unity of faith and Baptism, we have an undifferentiated fellowship, dearly beloved, and a uniform dignity.

So proclaims the most blessed apostle Peter when he says with these most sacred words: "And you yourselves should be built up like living stones into spiritual dwellings, a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”³⁵ And later on he says: "You, however, are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set apart.”³⁶ All who have been regenerated in Christ are made kings by the sign of the cross and consecrated priests by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Apart from the particular service that our ministry entails, all Christians who live spiritual lives according to reason recognize that they have a part in the royal race and the priestly office. What could be more royal than the soul in subjection to God ruling over its own body? What could be more priestly than dedicating a pure conscience to the Lord and offering spotless sacrifices of devotion from the altar of the heart?

Since this has been given to everyone alike through the grace of God, it is a devout and praiseworthy thing for you to take joy in the day of our elevation as if in your own honor. Let the episcopacy be celebrated in the entire body of the Church as one single mystery. When the oil of benediction has been poured out, the mystery flows, though more abundantly onto the higher parts, yet not ungenerously down to the lower ones as well.

2. Dearly beloved, our joint participation in this gift provides ample occasion for rejoicing together. Yet we will have a more genuine and more sublime cause for joy if you do not linger over the consideration of our lowliness. It would be far more useful and worthwhile to direct your attention higher, toward contemplating the glory of the most blessed apostle Peter. It would be far more useful and worthwhile to celebrate this day by venerating him first and foremost. He was inundated with such abundant channels of grace that, while he received many things by himself, nothing at all was transmitted to anyone else without his taking part.

At that time "the Word made flesh was" already "dwelling among us,”³⁷ and Christ had spent himself entirely in restoring the human race. Nothing was disorderly for his wisdom, nothing difficult for his power. Elements served him, spirits ministered to him, angels waited on him. No mystery performed by both the Unity and the Trinity of his Godhead together could possibly fail to have its effect. Yet out of the whole world Peter ALONE has been chosen to be put in charge of the universal convocation of peoples as well as of every apostle and all the Fathers of the Church. Although there are many priests and many shepherds among the people of God, it is Peter who properly rules each one of those whom Christ also rules principally. Great and wonderful a share in his power did God see fit to bestow upon this man, dearly beloved. If he wanted other leaders to share something with him, whatever he did not refuse entirely to these others he never gave unless it was through him.

All the apostles were asked by the Lord what people thought of him. Everyone gave the same answer as long as the uncertainty of human understanding was being displayed. But, when the Lord wanted to know what the disciples felt, the first in dignity among the apostles was the first to confess the Lord. When he had said, "You are Christ, Son of the living God,”³⁸ Jesus replied to him, "Blessed are you, Simon, son of John, since flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven,”³⁹ that is to say, for this reason are you blessed, since my Father taught you; since earthly opinion did not deceive you, but heavenly inspiration instructed you; since neither flesh nor blood but he, whose only Son am I, made me known to you. "And I," he said, "tell you,”⁴⁰ that is to say, just as my Father has manifested my divinity to you, so I make known to you your own prominence. "That you are Peter,”⁴¹ that is to say, although I am the indestructible rock, I "the cornerstone who make both things one,”⁴² I "the foundation on which no one can lay another,”⁴³ you also are rock because you are made firm in my strength. What belongs properly to my own power you share with me by participation. "And on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”⁴⁴ "On this" strength, he means, I will raise up an eternal temple, and the loftiness of my Church, piercing into heaven, will rise up on the firmness of this faith.

3. This confession will not be restrained by the gates of hell. It will not be bound by the chains of death. For that declaration is indeed a declaration of life. While it lifts those who confess it up to heaven, no less does it sink down to hell those who deny it. It was with this in view that the most blessed Peter was told: "I shall give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound also in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed also in heaven.”⁴⁵ 

Certainly, the right to use this power was conveyed to the other apostles as well. What was laid down by this decree went for all the leaders of the Church. Yet not without purpose is it handed over to one, though made known to all. It is entrusted in a unique way to Peter because the figure of Peter is set before all the rulers of the Church.

Therefore, this privilege of Peter resides wherever judgment has been passed in accordance with his fairness. There cannot be too much severity or too much lenience where nothing is bound or loosed outside of that which blessed Peter has loosed or bound.

When the Passion of the Lord was drawing near, an event that was going to shake the constancy of his disciples, he said: "Simon, Simon. Behold, Satan has obtained his request to sift you (all) like wheat. I, however, have begged for you that your faith not fail. Once you have converted, strengthen your brethren, lest you (all) enter into temptation.”⁴⁶ Each apostle encountered the same danger through temptation from fear. All equally needed the help of divine protection, since the devil wanted to harass them all and to crush them all. Still, the Lord took special care of Peter and prayed especially for Peter. It was as if the condition of the others would be more secure if the mind of their leader were not overcome.

In Peter, therefore, the fortitude of all is reinforced, for the aid of divine grace is ordered in such a way that the firmness given to Peter through Christ is conferred upon the apostles through Peter.

4. Therefore, dearly beloved, since we see that so great a protection has been divinely instituted for us, it is reasonable and just for us to rejoice in the merits and the dignity of our leader. We give thanks to the eternal king, the Lord Jesus Christ our Redeemer, for having given so great a power to the one whom he made leader of the entire Church. Even in our own times, if through us anything is done correctly or anything managed correctly, it must be attributed to his works, to his guidance.

To him was it said: "Once you have converted, strengthen your brethren.”⁴⁷ To him did the Lord after his Resurrection say by a mystical suggestion (three times in answer to his threefold profession of unending love): "Feed my sheep.”⁴⁸ Doubtless he now does that. As a dedicated shepherd, he carries out the mandate from the Lord. He strengthens us with his exhortations and never stops praying for us that we might not be overcome by any trial.

If, moreover, he extends this devoted concern to all the people of God everywhere-as indeed it has to be believed-how much more is he willing to lavish his assistance upon us, his adopted children? Among us does he rest on the sacred bed of blessed sleep, with the same flesh in which he presided [over the Church]. Let us, then, attribute this day on which our service was born, let us attribute this feast to him. It is under his patronage that we have merited to have a part in his see. Helping us through everything is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with God the Father and with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

34. Gal 3.28.

35. 1 Pt 2·5.

36. 1 Pt 2.9.

37. Jn 1.14.

38. Mt 16.16.

39. Mt 16.17.

40. Mt 16.18.

41. Mt 16.18.

42. Cf. Eph 2.20 and 14.

43. 1 Cor 3.11.

44. Mt 16.18.

45. Mt 16.19.

46. Lk 22.31-32 and 40.

47. Lk 22.32.

48. Jn 21.17.

Further Reading

PETRINE PRIMACY & ROMAN SUPREMACY

Chrysostom & Petrine Primacy

Filioque, Petrine & Roman Primacy

St. Optatus, Peter’s Primacy & the Papacy

Protestant Scholarship on Peter as the Rock