The Chair of Peter: Teaching by Example

“Chair of Peter” is the name of the Feast which the Church celebrates on February 22 every year. It is meant to honor the teaching function of the pope as the successor of Peter, the first pope. It recalls the gospel references to Christ siting on the boat of Peter as he taught the crowds.

The official name of this teaching role of the Church  is Magisterium, from the Latin “Magister” which means “Teacher”. Infallible and non-infallible papal teachings are called “Extraordinary and Ordinary Magisterium” respectively. The former refers to authoritative proclamations or definitions of dogmas, that is, when the pope speaks “ex cathedra” [“from the chair”]  on primary truths of salvation from the stand point of faith and morals; the latter are on secondary truths or means of salvation.

Most of the teachings of the popes are issued by means of the so-called encyclical letters and papal exhortations. With a few exceptions our Popes or Holy Fathers have always  taught by examples, by the way they live and behave.  A good many are saints and martyrs or witnesses, Christians murdered for refusing to renounce their faith in Jesus.

Pope Paul VI, who himself suffered a lot (he was stabbed – not fatally- in the stomach at the Manila airport in November 1970, a secret known only after he died), in his famous encyclical “Evangelii Nuntiandi” (Latin for “Announcing the Gospel”), says that today people believe witnesses more than teachers, and if they believe teachers it is because they are witnesses.

The present Holy Father, Pope Francis, is a remarkably great example of teacher and witness. He teaches humbly by example. He is a martyr of daily life (“Martir de la vida ordinaria”, Spanish).  Hi-tech multimedia and the internet now constitute the chair from where Peter teaches by example. This is why he draws thousands of people. Attentively they watch, observe, listen, and follow him. According to an old Latin saying, “verba volant, exempla trahunt”, “words fly,  examples attract”. Many fallen-away catholics are coming back to the Church through the power of good example in the mystery of grace. Even non-catholics and non-christians are attracted.

This graced teaching of a graceful teacher is transmitted gratis through the wonder and beauty of the internet. Only those attuned to beauty and imbued with the sense of wonder aided by grace perceive and experience God’s mysterious presence in the person of the sitting and smiling Pope Francis. Let us ask Our Lord to continue keeping him alive, strong, robust and well.