Twenty first Sunday in Ordinary Time A.  August 21 2005. Our Lady of Grace 9:30 and 6PM. Isaiah 22-19-23.  Romans 11:33-36.  Matthew 16:13-20.

At this time of the year it is the dead of winter at the bottom of the world, in Antarctica.  The land mass is completely covered by ice and snow and the temperature often drops to 50 to 70 below zero at night.  The winds howl mercilessly as storms move across the frozen continent.  For several weeks each winter it is dark for twenty four hours a day – the sun never rises.  In this sub-zero waste land, Emperor Penguins give birth to their young.   This past week I saw the movie “The March of the Penguins” at the Edina Theater.  It is a movie well worth seeing.  I recommend it very highly.  I watched penguins travel seventy miles across ice and snow, with their tiny steps, to mate, to lay an egg and to care for their egg and their baby chick together.  The father penguin is the first to warm the egg.  Exposed to the winter air it would freeze solid in minutes.  The mother penguin makes the seventy mile trip back to the sea to feed and to carry home food for the new chick.  The father penguin starves as he warms the egg without eating for many weeks.  When the mother penguin returns, having made the seventy mile trip back, she feeds the chick and the father penguin makes the seventy mile trip to the ocean to eat, before returning to help care for the chick while the mothers leave again.  During all of this time there are countless storms and blizzards.  The penguins huddle together with one thing in mind, to protect the egg or the chick that they share. 

I never knew that parenthood could be so hard or demand so many sacrifices. I was deeply impressed by the gift of love that these creatures lavished on their children.  I wondered to myself, “What makes them do that?”   In the end the adult penguins jump into the ocean and swim away.  They leave their almost grown chicks standing at the edge of the water.  They will never see their children again.   They gave themselves completely to their children because of the instinctual love they had for them – but they will never see them again.  Written into the life of these parent penguins is an amazing witness to the self-giving love of God.  I do not know how anyone can see this amazing movie and doubt the existence of God.  “God is love,” the Scripture says.  God’s image is carved into the fabric of creation.  Wherever there is love, there God is.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?"  They said, “Some say that you are John the Baptist.  Others say that you are Elijah.  Still others say that you are Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  Jesus then said, “But you, who do you, say that I am?”   Peter said, “You are the Christ – the Messiah – the Son of the living God.” 

Our world can be like a howling winter storm.  Spouses die unexpectedly.  Children get seriously ill.  People lose their jobs.  Wars happen.  Being a teenager or being elderly may confuse or depress us.  The storms of overwhelming challenge or defeat may rage within and all around us. Even in good times and on good days temptations and false gods beguile and mislead us, sometimes turning prosperity into a blind alley or an addiction. Those who think that life in the real world is easy are living some kind of an illusion. We do ourselves and our children a real disservice when we think life is a piece of cake. Human life is very good.  Yet, living a full life demands great courage.

The Emperor Penguins embrace the challenge of life with only an instinctual knowledge that courage and self-sacrificing love make the world go round.  The message of the Cross – the message that courage and unconditional love overcome darkness, storms and death, is written in their very being.  We human beings have minds to understand the ways of God and eternal life as our destiny.  So that we would not miss the message of the Cross and Resurrection written in the very fabric of creation, God sent us his own Son to be our teacher and our guide on our passage through this world to eternal life.  

Who is God?  What is the power that holds this universe together?  What has the great designer of the world told us about himself?   Peter was a weak and sinful man.  He lacked education.  He often lacked courage.  He was not always faithful to what he believed.  Yet, Peter and the faith of Peter in Jesus Christ are the rock upon which the Church is built.  The powers of hell can not win out against a person who knows that Jesus is the Son of the living God and puts faith in him.

Experience seems to indicate that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% what we make of it.  People who have a positive attitude about life are much more likely to make something good out of life than are those who do not.  If we believe that the world in which we live is sliding slowly into hell, this belief will change and color everything that we do and our world will become 90% hell, no matter what is happening.   If, on the other hand, we believe that our world belongs to Jesus Christ, who sacrificed himself for us, then no matter what is happening in our lives, we will survive and grow.  There is only one thing that we need to know to survive the winters of our lives and to build successfully on the good days.  We need to know with our minds and in our hearts that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.  The gates of hell are not able to hold out against this faith.  Even in the cold of deepest winter, belief in Jesus Christ will make us fertile and positive and life giving. 

Last evening I watched World Youth Day on TV.  I joined Pope Benedict and hundreds of thousands of young people from throughout the world in a prayer vigil.  The World Youth Day Closing Mass will be on TV tonight.  I hope you are able to watch this awesome event.  The background for several young people witnessing to the presence of Christ in their lives was Psalm 139.  “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.  You know when I sit and when I stand.  Where could I go from your Spirit, or where could I flee from you presence.  If I ascend to the heavens you are there.  If I descend into the depths of the earth you are there.  If I sail to the furthest parts of the sea you will be present there.  Even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me.”

Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  For the peace and joy that knowing Jesus brings we give God thanks and praise.