You are Peter!

Before the age of computers, in your grandparents’ time, many had pen friends. Your grandparent’s pen friends were mainly children from other countries, to whom they would send letters and from whom they would receive letters. Remember that there was no social media such as the media we have today. All the letters were sent by post. It was not easy to call each other either, because telephone calls abroad were expensive. It was usual to describe oneself in the first letters. Imagine that you have a pen friend and that you are going to send your first letter. How would you describe yourself?

Jesus did not have a pen friend, but he wanted to know what his friends the apostles, knew about him. He asked them to tell him, who they thought he was. Let us remember, that they had been living with him for almost three years. Being Jews, they were waiting for the Messiah, but it seems that they were not certain what the Messiah would be like. Maybe they were waiting for a Jew who would lead them and get rid of the Romans. This means that although the apostles knew Jesus well, we are not sure that they were fully convinced that he was the Messiah whom they were waiting for. It is Simon who gives the correct reply and confesses that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus praises Simon, giving him the new name of Peter, and tells him something very unexpected. He tells Simon Peter that he would build his Church upon him, the rock (the meaning of the word Peter!). This meant that Peter would lead the Church. St. Peter became the first Pope.

We too, are part of the Church. Although we are all different and have different roles, the Church would not be the same without us. It will not be as strong if we left. Today’s activity will help to make this clearer. Everyone takes several blocks. Put a piece of masking tape on one of the faces of each block. On one write Pope Francis. Everyone writes his/her name on separate blocks. On the remaining blocks, write down names of people who are Christians. When all the blocks have a name, the children can use them to build a wall. If there are enough blocks to build a room, build it instead of building a wall.

When the wall (or room) is strongly built, it will not easily collapse. This wall is like the Christian community, of which form we form part. What will happen if someone, does not want to continue being part of the Church, and leaves it? (remove one of the blocks, if possible one from the middle). The wall is now not as strong as before. If others leave, what will happen?

You see, that whoever we might be, we are all important for Jesus’ Church. The Church will not be the same without us.

If walls at home become scratched or they have mould, what will we do? We sand the wall down and paint it afresh. As Christians we do the same. Sin does not allow us to look beautiful, but when we go to confession, we become clean again. Just as a scratched wall looks better after it is newly painted, we too will look better when we become like Jesus. Do you remember how we learn to become like Jesus? (reading the Bible, going to mass and formation meetings, prayer).

Let us remember the question Jesus asked: “Who do you say I am?” As part of our prayer we will recite the Creed. Before reciting it, each will have a printout of this prayer and with the felt pen we will highlight the part which speaks about Jesus. The Creed is the prayer which gathers our belief as Catholics.