For you, the meaning has to be whatever you want it to be; objectively the meaning for you is the same as it is for a Catholic Christian, but subjectively it is whatever you want it to be, including nothing at all.
In Catholic theology, the Keys of Heaven, also called Saint Peter’s keys, refers to the metaphorical keys of the office of Saint Peter, the keys of Heaven, or the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. It is explicitly referenced in the Bible in Matthew 16:19
1. According to Catholic teaching, Jesus promised the keys to heaven to Saint Peter, empowering him to take binding actions.
In the Gospel of Matthew 16:19, Jesus says to Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on Earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 1.
The keys of heaven or keys of Saint Peter are seen as a symbol of papal authority 1.
Catholic Encyclopedia says:
The expression "power of the keys" is derived from
Christ's words to
St. Peter (in
Matthew 16:19). The promise there made finds its explanation in
Isaiah 22, in which "the key of the house of
David" is conferred upon Eliacim, the son of Helcias, as the symbol of plenary authority in the Kingdom of Juda. Christ by employing this expression clearly designed to signify his intention to confer on St. Peter the supreme authority over His
Church. For a consideration of the text in its dogmatic bearing, see
POPE;
PRIMACY. In the present article our sole purpose is to give a brief historical account of the meaning attached to the expression by
ecclesiastical writers.
The Fathers
(1) In the Fathers the references to the promise of
Matthew 16:19, are of frequent occurrence. Almost invariably the words of Christ are cited in
proof of the
Church's power to forgive
sins. The application is a natural one, for the promise of the keys is immediately followed by the words: "Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth", etc. Moreover, the power to confer or to withhold forgiveness might well be viewed as the opening and shutting of the gates of
heaven. This interpretation, however, restricts the sense somewhat too narrowly; for the remission of
sins is but one of the various ways in which
ecclesiastical authority is exercised. We have examples of this use of the term is such passages as August., "De Doctrina Christi", xvii, xviii: "Quid liberatius et misericordius facere potuit. . .nisi ut omnia donaret conversis. . .Has igitur claves dedit Ecclesiae suae ut quae solveret in terra soluta essent in coelo" (How could He [Christ] have shown greater liberality and greater mercy. . .than by granting full forgiveness to those who should turn from their
sins. . .He gave these keys to His
Church, therefore, that whatever it should remit on earth should be remitted also in
heaven) (P.L., XXIV, 25; cf. Hilary, "In Matt.", xvi, P.L., IX, 1010).
It is comparatively seldom that the Fathers, when speaking of the power of the keys, make any reference to the supremacy of St. Peter. When they deal with that question, they ordinarily appeal not to the gift of the keys but to his office as the rock on which the
Church is founded. In their references to the
potestas clavium, they are usually intent on vindicating against the
Montanist and
Novatian heretics the power inherent in the
Church to forgive. Thus
St. Augustine in several passages declares that the authority to bind and loose was not a purely personal gift to St. Peter, but was conferred upon him as representing the
Church. The whole Church, he urges, exercises the power of forgiving
sins. This could not be had the gift been a personal one (tract. 1 in Joan., n. 12, P.L., XXXV, 1763; Serm. ccxcv, in P.L., XXXVIII, 1349). From these passages certain
Protestant controversialists have drawn the curious conclusion that the power to forgive
sins belongs not to the
priesthood but to the collective body of
Christians (see Cheetham in "Dict. Christ. Antiq.", s.v.). There is, of course, no suggestion of this meaning.
St. Augustine merely signifies that the power to absolve was to be imparted through St. Peter to members of the
Church's hierarchy throughout the world.
Some few of the Fathers, however, are careful to note that the bestowal of this power upon St. Peter alone, apart from the other Apostles, denoted his primacy among the twelve (Optatus, "De Schism. Don.", vii, 3, in P.L., XI, 1087).
Origen dilates at length on this point, but teaches
erroneously that the power conferred upon the Twelve in
Matthew 18:18, could only be exercised within certain restrictions of place, while that conferred upon St. Peter in
Matthew 16:18, was of universal extent (Comm. in Matt., P.G., XIII, 1179).
(2) Occasionally, though infrequently,
Christ's promise is not restricted to signify the power to forgive
sins, but is taken in the fuller meaning of the gift of authority over the
Church. Thus
St. Gregory in his letter to the
Emperor Maurice, after quoting
Christ's words in
Matthew 16:18-19, writes: "Behold he [Peter] received the keys of the
kingdom of heaven, the power of binding and loosing is committed to him, the care of the whole Church and its government is given to him [cura ei totius Ecclesiae et principatus committitur (Epist., lib. V, ep. xx, in P.L., LXXVII, 745)]. St. Maximus in a sermon on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul (P.L., LVII, 403) says that to St. Peter was given the key of power (
clavis potentioe), to
St. Paul the key of
knowledge (
clavis scientioe). The
idea of a key of
knowledge is clearly derived from
Christ's words to the
Pharisees,
Luke 11:52: "You have taken away the key of
knowledge." This distinction of the
clavis potentioe and
clavis scientioe recurs frequently in the
medieval writers, though without reference to
St. Paul.
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