Image by CatholicVote.org
CV NEWS FEED // A recently published Spanish media network’s 2021 interview with Pope Francis about St. Peter has revealed thoughts from the Holy Father on the Gospel passage that would eventually be proclaimed at his funeral Mass.
Noel Díaz, founder of television and radio network ‘El sembrador, Nueva Evangelización’ (ESNE), conducted the interview with the pontiff at his papal residence of Santa Marta. According to Vatican News, which published a transcription of the interview, it was originally supposed to be a part of a documentary. ESNE was set to instead broadcast the interview May 2.
Díaz asked Pope Francis in the interview for his thoughts on a number of Scripture passages about Peter and Jesus, such as Matthew 16, when Jesus asks who Peter says the Son of Man is. Peter confesses in response: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replies that Peter is blessed for this revelation from God the Father, and continues: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.”
Pope Francis told Díaz that Jesus had chosen and confirmed Peter as leader when He said this. Pope Francis said that though Peter is fragile as a man, he “has the solidity of a stone” when he “relies on the word of Jesus.”
The pontiff referred back to this when commenting on John 21, when, after asking Peter three times about his love for Him, Jesus tells Peter to “Feed My sheep.” About four years after the video was recorded, John 21:15-19 would be the gospel proclaimed at the April 26 funeral in St. Peter’s Square for Pope Francis.
In the interview, Pope Francis spoke on this passage and the certainty with which Jesus confirms — after Peter’s earlier threefold denial of Jesus and repentance of that failure — that His Church would never be prevailed against.
“[Jesus] had promised Peter when he confessed Him [as Messiah] that the gates of hell would not prevail, that he would stand firm as long as he was on the rock. Here he confirms it three times,” Pope Francis said. “Peter is grieved because he remembers the three times he denied Him. And at the end the Lord confirms him for the third time.”
The pope also commented on how, immediately after confirming Peter, Jesus describes the kind of death Peter will eventually suffer.
Pope Francis noted that Jesus did not say, “From now on nothing bad will happen to you,” and that he will have lots of power, money and followers.
“Does He tell him that? No!” Pope Francis said. “He tells him: ‘Go on, because when you are old you will go where you don’t want to go, they will take you where you don’t want to go, they will strip you and you will end up like Me, crucified.’ The Lord promises Peter His own way, the way of the Cross, the way of total surrender, the way of putting one’s trust in Him alone.”