Today’s feast celebrates St. Peter, the rock upon whom Jesus built the Church. “You are Peter,” Jesus said, “and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18).

The early Church in Rome was in the custom of marking the date that Peter arrived to publicly lead their community. Each year on this date, they dedicated the empty chair Peter sat on when he presided over the community in prayer. He used to sit in the chair to receive newly converted Christians who were baptized. Still dripping wet, they would come to him in this chair to be anointed and confirmed.

February 22 was chosen to coincide with what was understood as the anniversary of the day on which Jesus entrusted the Church to Peter with the words from Matthew’s Gospel above. The actual chair of this feast was lost long ago in one of the several invasions and plunderings of Rome.

St. Peter is depicted in several places on campus. The mosaic featured today stands on the exterior of the front of the Basilica, and the stained glass window (shown below) comes from that church as well. Relics of St. Peter rest in the reliquary chapel, including a piece of the cross on which he was crucified upside-down.

On today’s feast, many may have on their minds the scandals and the corruption in the Church that have been front page news in recent years. Peter, although a saint, was an ordinary man who had to constantly convert himself throughout his life to follow Christ more completely. The community founded upon him must always do the same. May we pray today for the constant conversion of the hearts of each minister and member of the Church, that we may reach out to those who have been wounded and that we may all seek to convert and heal the mystical body of Christ of which we are a part.

On this feast of the Chair of St. Peter, let us pray for the pope and for the Church!