[Salvation]

Our Super Apostles

 

El Greco: Sts Peter and Paul 

 



This weekend's Solemnity of the dual "super Apostles" Sts. Peter and Paul plays such a core role in the history of Christianity that whether one be Catholic or another tradition we all should bow our heads to these giants and the Spirit of God who worked so powerfully through them both.  Yet, they obviously stood on clay feet along with the rest of us.  Peter's impulsive yet well intentioned expressions of faith, at times with a fragile loyalty to Jesus and Paul's entrance to Apostleship at a later time (post resurrection), along with his hatred for Christians before his conversion, make us stop and wonder why God chose them for roles of such fundamental leadership in the Christian community.

Normally, we may think of Peter who represents basically the institutional branch of Christianity, and Catholicism in particular, with Jesus' words of today's Gospel Mt. 16: 13-19: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it . . ."

And the great missionary spirit of the Church represented by St. Paul who carried the words of the Gospel to the Gentile world who speaks from his imprisonment in today's second reading from Timothy 4: 6-8, 17-18: "I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith."

Yet, both Peter and Paul were missionaries and institutional leaders in their own right, their personalities make them a contrast. The bold courage of their faith, tempered through human weakness, unites them.  Their martyrdom, likely in the years 64 or 67 A.D. during the persecution of the blood lust of Emperor Nero, make them both courageous witnesses that solidified the foundation of Christ's Church for all time. 

What can we learn from them about ourselves? Though they seem to be larger than life in some ways, we are called to no less.  Each of us has a message to share; a Gospel to carry by the faithful witness of our lives to the Lord Jesus in a way that brings others to see that the Church is a living body, the living presence of the risen Lord in our world today. 

Yes, the Church is flawed not because of God (after all Jesus stated this is "my Church") but because God for some mysterious reason has entrusted all of this to weak and at times sinful human beings.  Yet, the Church will prevail, not because of us, but as it may seem at times in spite of us.

So, today may be an opportunity to thank God that you have embraced the Christian faith and are truly blessed to be Catholic.  Rather than finding all the flaws of the Church, which seems to be a favorite pastime for some, celebrate and give thanks for all the good that we have seen and continue to see.  We all have a responsibility to live up to what we profess and as God did for Peter and Paul, he will do for us.  The Spirit of our baptism and our Confirmation, that living Spirit of God who speaks to us in the events of our lives and unites us in the Holy Eucharist through Christ's Church, and who sustains the truth of the Gospel will help us in all things.

O God, who on the Solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul

give us the noble and holy joy of this day,

grant, we pray, that your Church

may in all things follow the teaching

of those through whom she received

the beginnings of right religion.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

 

(Collect of Solemnity) 

Fr. Tim

[Salvation]

Insight Scoop

Saints Peter and Paul: Key witnesses to the reality and veracity of Jesus Christ

"Saint Peter and Saint Paul" by Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652) [www.wikiart.org/]

A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, June 29, 2014 | Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles | Carl E. Olson

Readings:
• Acts 3:1-10
• Psa 19:2-3, 4-5
• Gal 1:11-20
• Jn 21:15-19

One denied Christ after having been chosen by him. The other was chosen by Christ after he had spent much time and energy persecuting Christians. One was a businessman with a large, impetuous personality. The other was a rabbi whose emotional passion was equaled by his stunning intellect.

Both men were flawed; both were transformed by encountering Christ. Both were martyred for their faith in Christ. Both, according to tradition, died in the city of Rome nearly forty years after the Resurrection of their Lord.

After Jesus, it is Peter and Paul who dominate the New Testament and whose leadership set the course for the early Church. Peter is mentioned well over two hundred times in the New Testament, while close to half of the books in the New Testament are attributed to Paul. The Acts of the Apostles, an account written by Luke of key events in the early Church, is essentially divided between what might be called the “acts of Peter” (chapters 1-12) and the “acts of Paul” (chapters 13-28).

Each of today’s three readings reveals something of how the hearts and lives of these two great Apostles were met, filled, and transformed by Jesus Christ. The reading from the Gospel of Matthew is well known, describing the dramatic conversation that took place in the region of Caesarea Philippi. Standing in front of a massive one-hundred-foot high wall of rock marked with shrines and statues of pagan gods, Jesus asked two questions of his disciples: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” and “But who do you say that I am?” Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, did not come from superior intellect or human cleverness, but from faith and the revelation of the Father: “For flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father” (cf., Catechism, par. 552).

Peter, of course, struggled with faith, eventually denying Jesus on the cusp of the Crucifixion. But after being reaffirmed as head apostle by the Risen Lord (cf., Jn 21), Peter emerged as a man both humble and assured, his confidence placed fully in Christ, not himself. Pope Benedict XVI, reflecting on this change, said, “From the naïve enthusiasm of acceptance, passing through the sorrowful experience of denial and the weeping of conversion, Peter succeeded in entrusting himself to that Jesus who adapted himself to his poor capacity of love” (General Audience, May 24, 2006). This journey was possible for Peter because “he was constantly open to the action of the Spirit of Jesus.”

That openness is readily evident in the account, found in Acts 12, of Peter’s miraculous escape from prison. Like Jesus, he was arrested and imprisoned during the time of the Passover. And although Peter escaped death on that occasion, the episode described by Luke is evidently meant to “echo” the death and resurrection of Jesus, for Peter is delivered from the darkness of prison and certain death by an angel of Lord.

Prior to his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, Paul was a zealous persecutor of the Church. Blinded and lying on the road, the stunned Paul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” (Act 9:5). Given an answer and directives, he spent the rest of his life preaching the Gospel, competing in “the race,” one of his favorite metaphors for the Christian life. “His existence,” stated Benedict XVI, “would become that of an Apostle who wants to ‘become all things to all men’ (1 Cor 9:22) without reserve” (General Audience, Oct 25, 2006).

Both Peter and Paul are key witnesses to the reality and veracity of Jesus Christ. Their witness was two-fold: through living, first-hand encounters with the Lord and through their acceptance of martyrdom. “By martyrdom,” the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council explained, “a disciple is transformed into an image of his Master…” (Lumen Gentium, 42). May their bold witness encourage us to be likewise transformed by and for the Savior.

(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the June 29, 2008, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)