Saints Peter & Paul June 29
It was a beautiful June 29th in the summer of 1986 and I
rode my bike to early morning Mass. It was the feast day of Saints Peter and
Paul. The martyrs' scarlet red altar cloths and priestly vestments were quite a
contrast to the olive green of ordinary time. I often went to daily Mass, but
something about the celebration of Peter and Paul remained with me. I have met many saints in
the liturgy - both those officially canonized and those in the pews around me.
Daily Mass can be a great blessing in our lives.
Saints Peter and Paul, the two saints that
we celebrate today, are the two pillars of the Church. Peter and Paul were both
martyred in the city of Rome, executed during Nero’s persecution between 64 and
67 A.D. Peter first and then Paul.
Jesus had left his hometown of Nazareth and was living in
Capernaum, a port city on the Sea of Galilee, home to many fishermen. Jesus may
well have lived a few doors down from Simon-Peter.
One day after teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum,
(Lk. 4.38-41), Jesus "entered the house
of Simon. Jesus cured Simon-Peter's
mother-in-law. (I wonder if Peter thought that was a good thing?) Anyway, at
sunset, many of the sick with various diseases were brought to Jesus. He laid
his hands on each of them and cured them. He also performed many exorcisms. All
at Peter's house
Then a few days later, after
Simon-Peter had been fishing all night long and had caught nothing, he was
cleaning his nets and looking forward to going home to sleep, when Jesus happened
along. The Lord asked Simon-Peter if he could stand in his boat to teach the
crowd gathered on the shoreline. When he
finished speaking, he asked Simon
to take the boat out again: "Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a
catch.”
Simon-Peter
said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught
nothing....But at your command - at your word - I will lower the nets!"
[Luke 5.6-11] When he did so, his nets were so full of fish they
were nearly tearing...but Simon-Peter knelt before Jesus and said, “Depart from
me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
Note that once Simon says to Jesus, “Depart from me, Lord - leave me - for I am a
sinful man," that it is
then that the Lord can work in Simon-Peter's life.
Once Simon-Peter recognized that he was a sinner
and Jesus was the Lord and Savior, Jesus could then utilize him because in his
humility and recognition of his need for a savior, Jesus was then able to work
through his life.
Yes, there is a risk in being Jesus' neighbor, allowing
Christ to enter your home, your boat, your workplace. He will change our life
if we let him in.
And
how many of us still recall Jesus' question that echoes throughout history:
"Who do you say that I am?"
And Peter confesses his faith: "You are the Christ,
the Son of the living God."
Jesus declares: "Blessed are you, Simon...And so I say to you, you are
Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of
heaven...." (Matthew 16:17b-19).
After the Resurrection, Jesus asks Peter three times:
"Do you love me?" Do you love me more than the fish?
We must know Christ in order to love him.
How
are we to love Christ if we do not know Him?
And
how are we to know Him if we do not love him?
And when Jesus was arrested, Simon-Peter even denied that
he knew Jesus, but even after the crucifixion, the disciples still recognized him
as the chief apostle.
From the day of Jesus' Resurrection onward, and in the Acts of the Apostles,
Peter is recognized as the head of the church community, and later became the
"papa" of the Jewish-Christians and converts to Christianity in Rome,
This was rooted in Jesus' decision to call Peter the rock, the chief apostle,
and to give him the keys of the kingdom, which symbolize the authority of the
Church. Hence the title papa, or "pope" is associated with this first
bishop of Rome and all subsequent bishops of Rome.
Let us
now turn to Saul of Tarsus, Saint Paul. Saul was a strident Pharisee, and as a
Jewish theologian he was a staunch defender of Judaism against the followers of
Jesus of Nazareth - even to the point where he oversaw the death by stoning
execution of Saint Stephen.
Yet this ardent enemy of Christ, on the road
to Damascus to arrest members of the Church, was blinded by the light of the
Risen Christ Jesus and his life was changed foverer.
That event was the impetus that made him one
of the most passionate and courageous ambassadors of Christ in Church history,
making him the Apostle to the Gentiles.
Persecution, humiliation, and weakness became
his daily cross thereafter. Paul went through much
for Our Lord. "...imprisonments, ...beatings,
and numerous brushes with death. Five times he received forty
lashes minus one. (40 was considered lethal); Three times
he beaten with rods, once he was stoned and left for dead, three times he was
shipwrecked, he passed a night and a day adrift on the open sea; in dangers..from
robbers...dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, and dangers
among false brothers...." (2 Cor. 11.
23-26).
But Paul assures us:
"The sufferings of the present are as nothing
compared with the glory to be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18-21) and declares in Galatians 2.20 . "I have been
crucified with Christ, for it is no longer I who live, but Christ Jesus who lives in me...the Son of
God who has loved me and given himself up for me."
Like both Peter and Paul, once Christ encounters us, and calls us each by
name, we are wounded with mercy, our hearts are seared with his love, and our
minds with his truth ; this is why we will desire to keep His Commandments and
follow Church Teaching....
and when we taste His goodness, experience his love, and his mercy, we long
for more....for we are wounded by His love. This longing for the beautiful, for
the good, the true, all that is holy, is what Saints Peter and Paul
experienced.
They abandoned everything to follow Christ - Peter was crucified upside
down and Paul was beheaded - as enemies of the state, the decadent Roman world.
They were witnesses to the Truth of Christ and took up the Cross, and it was as
difficult then as it is now where the only truth is that nothing is true.
Yes, both Peter and Paul embraced Christ because He had embraced them;
He had called them as disciples and taken possession of them, and sent them
forth as Apostles.
Peter
and Paul certainly knew the Mercy of Christ for they were shown great mercy. We
too are called to allow Christ to possess us and in turn we are to share the
same mercy with those we encounter today and every day.
Like Peter,
once we recognize our need for mercy, Jesus can then step into our boats, enter
our homes, work through our broken lives. Like Paul, no one is beyond the scope
of God's mercy - not even the enemies to the faith.
These
two men underwent extreme change and yet kept their eyes on Christ. And in the
midst of their radical changes, in following Christ, they didn't focus on
themselves, or worry and say: "What's in this for me?"
They didn't wait around to
see how this whole Christian thing turned out. They couldn't. They were right
in the middle of the maelstrom...they didn't have the luxury of sitting back
and watching while others worked to make Christianity happen. They were what was happening.
and they gave their last ounce of courage, their last drop of
blood...literally.
Their willingness to follow Christ required a total
commitment in faith and hope.
After Christ taught about the Eucharist,
thousands of disciples left him. Jesus turned to the twelve and asked:
"Will you also go away."
Simon-Peter answered: "Lord, to whom else
shall we go? You alone have the word of everlasting life."
(pause)
Where is our faith unless we are willing to
risk something?
Everything?
As we celebrate these two very different men,
is it a coincidence that we are here?
The mission of our new parish will not require a recognition of our
limits, but awareness of God's abundance. God will provide!
At
the Transfiguration, Simon-Peter declared: "It
is good for us to be here!"
It is good that we are here at Christ the King and Holy Spirit Parishes, as we unite this week into the merged Parish of the Annunciation.
May we, like Peter and Paul, respond to the Lord when He calls each of us
by name, and persevere in faith - even amid our sinfulness and doubts and
denials and fears - knowing that if the Lord can work through the fallible and
complicated characters of Peter and Paul, then certainly He can work through
us.
And at the end of our journey, we can pray, as did Saint Paul: "I have
fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith"
(2Tim. 4:7-8).
Yes, I am so glad I rode my bike to early morning Mass
back on June 29th 1986. And I hope the celebration of the Eucharist - the
fervent prayer of the Church - continues to transform you and me, just as it
did Saints Peter and Paul.
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