Keys: Kleis (Gk.): meaning, “a key”. Since the keeper of the keys has the power to open and to shut, the key was used as a metaphor in the NT to denote power and authority of various kinds.
“After his Resurrection, Christ sent his apostles ‘so that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations’ (Lk.24:47). The apostles and their successors carry out this “ministry of reconciliation,” not only by announcing to men God’s forgiveness merited for us by Christ, and calling them to conversion and faith; but also by communicating to them the forgiveness of sins in Baptism, and reconciling them with God and with the Church through the power of the keys, received from Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 5:18)” (CCC, 981; cf. 1444). This overarching truth regarding the nature of the Church is so great, that she calls all catechists to place an emphasis on the role of the Apostolic Church and her ministry of reconciliation (cf. CCC, 983).
The Greek term Kleis can be found six times in the New Testament, four of which come from the book of Revelation that underscore Christ’s “royal and judicial power over life and death (Rev.1:18, 3:7), which is the power to lock and unlock the powers of the netherworld called Hades (9:1, 20:1, 13; Wis. 16:13-14)” (Hahn and Minch, 38). The other most notable use of key is tied to the famous passage from the gospel of Matthew when Christ sets up Peter as the Prime Minister to oversee his church that the aforesaid Hades will never overcome (cf. Mt.16:13-20) (also cf. wow on Peter). Essentially, the principle biblical use of key in the NT symbolizes the power and authority that Christ possessed, and in turn, handed on to Peter and the Twelve. Moreover, this plan to set up Peter as the chief instructor of the faith and the Church as the visible sign of Christ’s love for his people, has as its center the exercise of mercy in the sacrament of confession (cf. Jn.20:22-23) (also cf. wow on forgive).
This Second Sunday of Easter, which the Church celebrates as Divine Mercy Sunday, affords us the opportunity to examine the importance of mercy as it related to the keys that unlock the treasure of Christ (cf. wow on mercy). Un-phased by the media’s ever-increasing attempt to bring down the Church, we must board the vessel of the Church and see this Easter season as an occasion to be reconciled with Christ and his Church, and in so doing, live as envoys for the cause of mercy and triumph of the Church. Undoubtedly, to the extent that we share in Christ’s mercy via forgiveness and reconciliation, we communicate to others the objective reality that is Christ. So let us go forth with our hearts aligned with Christ and his mission to be the living form of mercy.
“[The Church] has received the keys of the Kingdom of heaven so that, in her, sins may be forgiven through Christ’s blood and the Holy Spirit’s action. In this Church, the soul dead through sin comes back to life in order to live with Christ, whose grace has saved us.”
–St. Augustine
Primary Texts Consulted
• Catholic Bible. Suggested trans. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition, 1997.
• Hahn, Scott and Minch, Curtis. Ignatius Catholic Study Bibl: The First, Second, and Third Letters of St. John and the Revelation to St. John, RSV, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2009.