Epiphany Season – Confident.Faith

Today we celebrate the Festival of St. Titus, Pastor and Confessor. Like Timothy, St. Titus was a friend and coworker of St. Paul. Whereas it is not known if Titus accompanied Paul on his first and second missionary journeys, it is known that Titus accompanied Paul on his third missionary journey, along with Barnabas, to Jerusalem to bring aid during a famine. Likely after the trip to Jerusalem, Paul and Titus parted ways, with Titus staying in Crete and eventually working in Dalmatia and then, according to tradition, serving as bishop in Crete until his death in about AD 96.

Today we celebrate the Festival of the Conversion of St. Paul. Originally a zealous persecutor of the Church, St. Paul (then Saul of Tarsus) met Christ on the road to Damascus. Blinded by a bright light, Saul heard the words “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” to which Saul replied “Who are You, Lord?” to which Christ replied “I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting.” Upon arriving in Damascus, Saul was sought by a disciple named Ananias, who had been sent by the Lord to heal Saul. Upon receiving his sight, Saul was baptized and went on to become the Apostle Paul, a man whom God called ‘a chosen instrument … to carry [Christ’s] name before the nations’.

Today we celebrate the Festival of St. Timothy, Pastor and Confessor. Best remembered as a companion of St. Paul, St. Timothy grew up in a Christian household. After meeting Paul on his (Paul’s) second missionary journey, Timothy accompanied Paul on further missionary journeys and was with Paul in Rome. According to tradition, Timothy was martyred in Ephesus around AD 97, where he served as bishop after Paul’s martyrdom in Rome.

Today we celebrate the Festival of The Confession of St. Peter. In response to Christ’s challenge: “But who do you say that I am?”, Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This — Peter’s confession — is the rock upon which the Church is built. As Christ makes clear, it is not “flesh and blood [that] [reveals]” this truth, but “[the] Father Who is in Heaven”.

Here in Matthew, and elsewhere in the NT, Christ makes clear that He gives the Keys to the entire Church, not to Peter alone, and with the Keys the power to bind and to loose: “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.” As the Smalcald Articles state:

The Keys are an office and power given by Christ to the Church for binding and loosing sin. This applies not only to gross and well-known sins, but also the subtle, hidden sins that are known only to God. As it is written, “Who can discern his errors?” (Psalm 19:12).

It is truly this confession of Peter — that Christ is the Son of the living God — upon which the Church is founded, with Christ as cornerstone.