Tu es Petrus

I’m thinking on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul of this song so typical of this liturgical celebration: Tu Es Petrus. How many composers in history wanted to set to music the words of the Gospel that has had so big impact in ecclesiastical history.

Jesus chose the humble fisherman of Galilee to be the leader of his Church. This new leader wanted Rome to be elected as the city of destiny, a destiny that was courting the eternal city for centuries. Catholicism was placed in continuity with the Roman empire’s greatness, rejected the conquering violence but would incarnate the sense of eternity that emanated from the buildings of the great Rome. The anti Roman hatred is the hatred of a secular destiny, that for the inscrutable ways that the story takes, donated to Rome, once a small village of humble people, the way to understand eternal and superhuman things.