[Meditationes seu Contemplationes devotissimae]

Concerning the power handed over to the apostles by Christ, designated as the keys of the kingdom of heaven

The disposition of your providence

Thus, good Jesus, it was regarding your most beloved spouse, the holy Church. For when, for its building, you, the pontiff of future good things, were disposing the apostles and their successors—the ministers of the evangelical priesthood and dispensers of your sacraments and divine mysteries—you conferred upon them an admirable power with your gracious generosity, by which they might release sins for men and open the door of the heavenly kingdom to believers. For this cause, by metaphorical locution, it is named the "keys of the kingdom of heaven." And so that the unity of the Church might always remain unbroken, your wisdom, Jesus, distributed the aforementioned power to the apostles in such an order that, in the sublimity of one of them, the principle of that power was placed, namely in Peter, who in that school of heavenly disciples was chief and first. Whence, Matthew 16, when Christ asked the disciples whom they said He was, and when Peter, as their mouth and head, answered, "You are Christ, the son of the living God," hearing this from Christ, he merited: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not

prevail against it. And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven." O inestimable and immense power! Augustine says: "A man placed on earth holds heaven." Behold, now at the nod of Peter, the gates of the divine kingdom are opened. For he received from Christ the keys of the kingdom of heaven, that by loosening the bonds of sins, he might open heaven to believers. O how near and close are the remedies! The world has it near, and lives in the kingdom at Peter's hand. No machines are sought here for the clouds, because faith alone prepares the ascent; the way is not long for those seeking the ears of the Lord, because Christ himself is made the way for believers. He placed, in his stead, Peter, the key-bearer of the heavenly kingdom in the world, lest anyone should think the ascent to heaven difficult for himself. And Bernard says: "Peter, key-bearer of the kingdom of heaven, tongue of faith, foundation of the Church, finished honor and glorious dignity, a man placed on earth to be equal in heaven and to exercise the power of judicial authority among the choirs of angels. Peter is present, and at his will, the universality of the world binds and looses, and the sentence of Peter precedes the sentence of the Redeemer, because not what Christ binds, this binds,