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guides his flock. She teaches also, at the same time,
that during His last sojourn on earth, Jesus Christ
instituted for His Church a form of government analo
gous to the system peculiar to a sheepfold. Saint Peter
and his successors, the Roman Pontiffs, will be its
visible pastors, whilst our Lord Himself will remain the
invisible Pastor. Those who are called to represent Him
here on earth, must rule according to His will and
example.
It was at the time of His appearance to His apostles
on the shore of Lake Genesareth that our Lord APPOINT
ED SAINT PETER THE VISIBLE HEAD OF His CHURCH.
Three times He asked from Saint Peter a declaration of
his love, after which He committed to him the charge
of feeding His lambs and His sheep, that is the faithful,
the priests and the bishops, who would form His Church
and His fold. To Saint Peter alone, for himself and
his successor, was given this power which we designate
the Primacy. As in the creation of the human race,
God in the beginning created one man from whom all the
rest should spring, so Jesus Christ chose Saint Peter as
the first of those men who had been regenerated in Bap
tism, from whom were to come all the members of His
Church. On another occasion our Lord made use of
the simile of a building when He promised Saint Peter
the privilege of infallibility. Saint Peter, by virtue of
this promise, was to have, like Jesus Christ Himself,
the firmness of a rock and the power of communicating
this solidity to the other apostles.
The Introit of the Mass for this Sunday extols the
mercy of God extended to the whole world by the foun
dation of the Church. The two verses of the Alleluia
remind us that Jesus from the depths of the tabernacle
triumphantly affirms that He is indeed the Good Shep-