today's readings are 1 Peter 5: 1-4; Psalm 23; Mt. 16: 13-19
Long before I entered the seminary, and before the advent of the internet, the feast for today was a puzzle for me. Why were we celebrating St. Peter's chair? Why not his bed or another piece of furniture? What made this chair so special?
Later I would learn that this chair represented the authority of the office that Jesus would entrust to him. For thousands of years kings would sit on thrones while carrying out their office. For the first Bishop of Rome, it was a chair - and his role would not be to rule but to serve - to serve God and serve God's people as the first Pope, a service that would also be one of leadership.
It is thought that once he had taken up his role as the first Bishop of Rome, Peter actually had a chair on which he would sit when the adult faithful, after just being baptized, would approach him sitting in that chair where he would confirm and anoint them.
This position of leadership and service that Jesus first entrusted to Peter has been passed down for almost two thousand years through his successors, with Pope Francis being St. Peter's 263rd successor.
One last point - the word chair in Latin is cathedra, from which we take our word cathedral. A church can only be a cathedral if within it is the seat of the (Arch)Bishop of the local (Arch)Diocese. Here in Toronto, that cathedra can be found just behind the altar of St. Michael's Cathedral.
For the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, the cathedra is not found in St. Peter's Basilica but in the Cathedral Basilica of St. John Lateran, in the city of Rome. The photo above shows the Pope's cathedra in the apse of St. John Lateran.