Sunday, February 20, 2022

This Tuesday is the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. What is with a feast about a piece of furniture? Should we have a feast for the sofa of St. Andrew, the bookcase of St. Thomas Aquinas, the chest of drawers of Saint Francis, the desk of St. Phoebe? Well, obviously not. So, what gives with the Chair of St. Peter?  

Unlike today, when the teacher stands and the students are all seated in desks, in the ancient world it was exactly the opposite. The students, or the audience, stood, and the teacher or king would sit and give forth their teachings or their edicts. The chair became a sign of teaching authority just like the throne became a sign of royal authority. Even today we have a vestige of this in our courts, where the judge is seated (usually on a raised platform or dais), as a sign of his/her authority. Universities have endowed “chairs” in various subjects.  

Often in the Gospels when Jesus is going to give some important teaching He first of all sits down. This is not because He was weary and wanted to take a load off His feet, but because He was signaling that now I am going to tell you something important, something authoritative. So in Matthew chapter 5, just before Jesus gives the teaching of the Beatitudes, Matthew makes the point that Jesus sat down and His disciples came to Him. Matthew is not saying that Jesus was tired from climbing up the mountain and so He sat down to rest, but rather Jesus sat down to assume the position of a teacher. Jesus is alerting His disciples by His posture that He is now going to tell them something important.

From ancient times the chair was a sign of teaching authority.  In Latin the chair is “cathedra”. A cathedral is the church of the Bishop’s chair, his sign of authority to teach.  If you go to St. Mary’s Cathedral you will see several chairs up in the altar area. One chair is for regular priests when they celebrate Mass at St. Mary’s, and the other chair, more elaborate and slightly elevated, is the Bishop’s chair, almost a throne. No one sits there except the Bishop.

Therefore, the “Chair” of St. Peter is not about furniture, but about the teaching authority of St. Peter. That authority is passed down to the Popes and the Bishops. Guided by the Holy Spirit, they cannot go way off the mark when they teach authoritatively and in unison. This is the basis of the belief in Papal infallibility.
  

On Tuesday when we celebrate the Chair of St. Peter, we really are celebrating the promise of the Holy Spirit that the Church, under the direction of the Pope and the Bishops, will not seriously go into error. The true meaning and message of the Gospel will always be preserved, and not be fatally corrupted nor compromised. And that is something to celebrate.

God bless!