Homily for Mass – Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

(Saint John Fisher Church, Tarragindi: Saturday 6:00pm; Sunday 9:00am;

Mary Immaculate Church, Annerley: Sunday 5:00pm)

23/24 August 2014

[Readings: Is 22:1-23; Ps 137; Rom 11:33-36; Mt 16:13-20]

 In our first reading today we hear of Eliakim and Shebna, who were the chief stewards – or like the prime minister – under King Hezekiah, the king of Judah. “The king had many servants … but one man was chief among them and stood between the king and his other ministers” [1]. We are told, in the first reading, that this prime minister would “be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah,” and as a sign of his office he would be given the keys of the kingdom, the key of the House of David.

The keys held by Shebna and Eliakim, as prime ministers…