What's in a name?

Or should I ask, what's in a chair?
Who's in a chair?
Sounds like it's leaning towards that old "Who's on First?" schtick, but not.  So not.

Ok, you guessed it: Peter!
Cephas, The Rock!
It's the feast of the Chair of St. Peter.
Which isn't really about that cool looking chair above, though it is and it isn't….
It's all about Matthew 16:13-20, you know:

"….Christ says, "Who do they say that I am?" "Who do you say that I am?" and "Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." 
So Christ Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.

And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,  and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.

I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

El Greco, St Peter, Monasterio di San Lorenzo

You know, that's some powerful renaming there.  And this feast helps us remember that God himself, in Christ set up his church on earth on the Rock, on Cephas, on Peter.  But it's not really just on the man.  Because he was a MAN, and was gonna die in the normal course of events, no? Of course, so it's also the seat, his seat, his Chair, if you will.  Just like there can be presidents' in succession, there are the successor to Peter, the Bishop of Rome, in succession as well.  It's a cool system, no surprise.  

So, that's some chair.  

And the division and strife we have now and that is our very human nature, and  has been with us for centuries, is not what it's meant to be.  Just saying.  

Happy Feast Day of the Chair of St. Peter….to our Pope!