When God said “We’

Another instance of how our Lord associated Peter with himself was in the payment of the temple tax. It is the only time in scripture where God ever associates a human being with himself under the personal pronoun we. Just think how proud you were when, as a child, perhaps, your father put his arms around you and said, “We will do this.” Now at the time of the payment of the temple tax our Blessed Lord told Peter to pay it, and he said to pay it “for me and for thee”. Then he adds, “that we may not scandalize.” Here he makes himself one with Peter. Peter is associated with the Master in a way that no one else can ever be associated. We—Christ and Peter. That is why papal encyclicals begin with the word we.