Posted on 06/28/2025 10:20:32 AM PDT by fidelis
By Dr. John Bergsma
This Sunday is the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul and a very great feast day for the Church.
Saints Peter and Paul represent, respectively, the leaders of the Church’s mission to the Jews and to the Gentiles (Gal 2:7). The Church celebrates their feasts on the same day, because the Church’s proclamation of the gospel is founded on their dual mission: “the gospel … is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (i.e. the Gentile)” (Rom 1:16).
Since the earliest times, and continuing today, there have been efforts to split Peter from Paul, and claim that they had different gospels. Peter is claimed to have preached a “Jewish Christianity,” which insisted on the continued observance of the law of Moses, whereas Paul is blamed for the idea of preaching faith in Jesus to Gentiles, without requiring circumcision or any other Jewish ritual. Such views continue to be promoted in TV shows or popular books about the beginnings of Christianity.
A split between Peter and Paul on the nature of the gospel can’t be reconciled with the actual text of the New Testament. It’s true that at one time, Paul and Peter had a disagreement on the practical implications of how to behave as Jews who had now come to believe Jesus was the Messiah (Gal 2:11-21). However, the Book of Acts makes it abundantly clear that it was Peter who first witnessed and confirmed the gift of the Holy Spirit and baptism to uncircumcised Gentiles (Acts 10). Furthermore, St. Paul was willing to follow Jewish ritual if it gave him a better opportunity to preach to people about Jesus Christ (Acts 16:3; 18:18; 1 Cor 9:22). While we generally identify Peter with the Jewish mission and Paul with the Gentile, in point of fact, they both preached to everyone, as the opportunity presented itself.
Sts. Peter and Paul were also united by shedding their blood in the same city, Rome. Both were executed there, and their disciples/successors stayed in Rome permanently—thus Rome became the center of Christianity, as it remains to this day.
Many years ago I was in Rome on this Solemnity, wandering around in the city, on a general path from the Vatican to St. John Lateran. I was looking for a place to do some spiritual reading, and walked into a small church—there are churches everywhere in Rome, of course. There was a pleasant little chapel on the upper floor of the church, so I did my reading there. My pocket New Testament was marked out for a yearly reading cycle, and the reading for the day was the first chapter of Paul’s Letter to the Romans. I did my reading and prayed for a while. When I got up to leave, I noticed there was a lower story to the church, and tourists were coming in to look around. I thought I’d go down to investigate. When I did, I discovered I was on the site of the Mamertime Prison, the traditional location of the incarceration of Peter and Paul prior to their executions! What a place to celebrate this solemnity!
The readings for today’s Mass stress God’s supernatural deliverance of these two saints.
1. The first reading is from Acts 12:1-11:
1 In those days, King Herod laid hands upon some members of the Church to harm them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, killed by the sword, 3 and when he saw that this was pleasing to the Jews he proceeded to arrest Peter also. It was the feast of Unleavened Bread. 4 He had him taken into custody and put in prison under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each. He intended to bring him before the people after Passover. 5 Peter thus was being kept in prison, but prayer by the Church was fervently being made to God on his behalf.
6 On the very night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter, secured by double chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while outside the door guards kept watch on the prison. 7 Suddenly the angel of the Lord stood by him and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and awakened him, saying, “Get up quickly.” The chains fell from his wrists. 8 The angel said to him, “Put on your belt and your sandals.” He did so. Then he said to him, “Put on your cloak and follow me.” 9 So he followed him out, not realizing that what was happening through the angel was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 They passed the first guard, then the second, and came to the iron gate leading out to the city, which opened for them by itself. They emerged and made their way down an alley, and suddenly the angel left him. 11 Then Peter recovered his senses and said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people had been expecting.”
The King Herod mentioned is neither the Herod who persecuted the child Jesus (Herod the Great, r. 37 BC—4 BC) nor the Herod who tried Jesus (Herod Antipas, r. 4 BC—AD 39 over Galilee and Perea), but Herod Agrippa I, who ruled Judea from AD 41 to 44. The execution of James and imprisonment of Peter took place in AD 44, as Herod would die suddenly that same year in an act of divine vengeance (Acts 12:20-23).
The arrest of Peter takes place during Passover (“The Feast of Unleavened Bread”). We expect that history will repeat itself and Peter will be executed in the image of his Lord. But suddenly, there is a twist: God sends his angel and delivers Peter—for a while. Characteristically, Luke notes that “prayer by the Church was fervently being made to God on his behalf.” Luke always emphasizes the role of prayer in the life of the lord and the early Church.
2. The responsorial psalm is Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9:
R. (5) The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.
2 I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
3 Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.
4 Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
5 I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
R. The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.
6 Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
7 When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
R. The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.
8 The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
9 Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
R. The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.
Psalm 34 is a psalm of thanksgiving for God’s deliverance of David from King Abimelech of the Philistines. David was in danger of being executed by Abimelech, but he feigned madness and was released (1 Sam 21:11-16). God works in different ways to deliver those who love him. in the context of this Sunday’s Mass, it is not the great power of Peter or Paul that is brought into focus, but their spiritual poverty and dependence on God for deliverance. Peter and Paul were not saints because they were blessed with great charisms but because both learned to trust the Lord for salvation.
3. The second reading is from 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18:
6 I, Paul, am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7 I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. 8 From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearance.
17 The Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the proclamation might be completed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe to his heavenly Kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
The key phrase that links it thematically to the First Reading is this:
And I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe to his heavenly Kingdom.
While God can and does rescue the faithful from harm, we also remember that both Peter and Paul were ultimately executed for their faith. The locations of their death were early sites of pilgrimage, and are marked to this day by the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul Outside-the-Walls. So what happened? Did God fail them at the last hour?
We need to remember, as Our Lord taught, that the ultimate evil is not physical harm or death:
Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna (Matt 10:28).
Further, true evil and harm is to fall into sin.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (Matt 6:13)
To complete our life’s journey without falling into sin and betraying Christ in our last moments is truly to be delivered from evil. That is the faithfulness of God to Peter and Paul that we celebrate today.
4. The Gospel Reading is: Matthew 16:13-19
13 When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. 18 And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
In the Gospel Reading, St. Peter’s foundational role in the Church is affirmed by Christ. Some commentators try to avoid the implication that Peter is “the rock” on which Christ will build his Church. They draw a distinction between petros, the masculine name meaning “rock” which Jesus gives to Peter, and petra, the Greek word for rock, which is feminine. Therefore, they claim, petros (Peter) isn’t really the petra (rock).
The problem is, this distinction only works in Greek translation. The spoken language of Jesus and the disciples was Aramaic, which has one indeclinable word for rock: kepha. This is the root for “Cephas”, the other name for Peter which crops up untranslated from time to time in the New Testament. In Aramaic, our Lord said to Peter, “You are kepha, and on this kepha I will build my Church.”
The image of the rock that prevails over the netherworld has to do with the pictorial worldview of Jews at the time of Jesus. the Temple was believed to have built on a great rock (the “stone of foundation” or eben shettiyah) that blocked up the shaft leading down to hell. So, this is part of a Church-as-temple image in which Peter is the foundation stone of the temple-Church that will block the forces of hell from overflowing onto the earth.
The “keys of the kingdom” given to Peter are an image from the Old Testament. The royal steward, the “one over the palace” (Heb. asher al-habbayit) wore the key or keys to the palace on his shoulder as his badge of office. He controlled access to the king’s throne room: what he shut no one could open, and what he opened no one could shut (Isaiah 22:22). The royal steward was second in authority only to the king. Jesus is placing Peter in that role in the kingdom of heaven that he is establishing.
The language of “binding” and “loosing” that Jesus uses is technical language used among the Jews to describe the authority to determine halakhah, that is, the practical application of religious law. “Binding” was forbidding something, and “loosing” was permitting it. The entry on “Binding and Loosing” in the classic 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia is very helpful:
The power of binding and loosing was always claimed by the Pharisees. Under Queen Alexandra, the Pharisees, says Josephus ("B J." i, 5, § 2), "became the administrators of all public affairs so as to be empowered to banish and readmit whom they pleased, as well as to loose and to bind." This does not mean that, as the learned men, they merely decided what, according to the Law, was forbidden or allowed, but that they possessed and exercised the power of tying or untying a thing by the spell of their divine authority, just as they could, by the power vested in them, pronounce and revoke an anathema upon a person. The various schools had the power "to bind and to loose"; that is, to forbid and to permit; and they could bind any day by declaring it a fast-day (Meg. Ta'an. xxii.; Ta'an. 12a; Yer. Ned. i. 36c, d). This power and authority, vested in the rabbinical body of each age or in the Sanhedrin, received its ratification and final sanction from the celestial court of justice (Sifra, Emor, ix.; Mak. 23b).
In this sense Jesus, when appointing his disciples to be his successors, used the familiar formula (Matt. xvi. 19, xviii. 18). By these words he virtually invested them with the same authority as that which he found belonging to the scribes and Pharisees who "bind heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but will not move them with one of their fingers"; that is, "loose them," as they have the power to do (Matt. xxiii. 2-4). *
Basically, the authority to bind and loose was the authority to make final decisions about religious matters. This is what we call to day “the exercise of the Magisterium.” Papal infallibility is an ultimate implication of this authority granted to Peter because Peter’s decisions are guaranteed by the backing of heaven.
Peter’s authority enables the Church to make clear decisions and speak with one voice on moral matters. Thus we as Christians are not left in a situation of perpetual argument with one another over the meaning of Scripture, but the clear voice of Peter speaking through his successor enables us to identify right from wrong. This is also part of what it means to be “delivered from evil.”
On this solemnity, let’s pray to imitate the humility of Peter and Paul, who, for all Paul’s intellectual gifts and Peter’s infused spiritual authority, were still humble men who relied moment by moment on the power of God and his angels to “rescue them from every evil.” Their example is a model for our spirituality.
* Kaufman Kohler, Binding and Loosing,” The Jewish Encyclopedia, the Kopelman Foundation, www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3307-binding-and-loosing.
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