Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul – 29 June

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles and Martyrs  – 29 June

Today the Church celebrates the feast day of Sts Peter & Paul.   As early as the year 258, there is evidence of an already lengthy tradition of celebrating the solemnities of both Saint Peter and Saint Paul on the same day.   Together, the two saints are the founders of the See of Rome, through their preaching, ministry and martyrdom there.   St Peter is also celebrated on 22 February (feast of the Chair of Peter, emblematic of the world unity of the Church) on 1 August (Saint Peter in Chains), St Paul’s Conversion is celebrated on 25 January and both are once again celebrated on 18 November (feast of the dedication of the Basilicas of Peter and Paul – the two major Basilicas in Rome).

In a sermon in the year 395, St Augustine (354-430) Father & Doctor of the Church, said of Sts Peter and Paul:

“Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one.

Peter went first and Paul followed.

And so we celebrate this day made holy for us, by the apostles’ blood.   Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labours, their sufferings, their preaching and their confession of faith.”

Peter (d. 64?) Saint Mark ends the first half of his Gospel with a triumphant climax.   He has recorded doubt, misunderstanding and the opposition of many to Jesus.   Now Peter makes his great confession of faith – “You are the Messiah” (Mark 8:29b).   It was one of the many glorious moments in Peter’s life, beginning with the day he was called from his nets along the Sea of Galilee to become a fisher of men for Jesus.

The New Testament clearly shows Peter as the leader of the apostles, chosen by Jesus to have a special relationship with Him.   With James and John he was privileged to witness the Transfiguration, the raising of a dead child to life and the agony in Gethsemane.   His mother-in-law was cured by Jesus.   He was sent with John to prepare for the last Passover before Jesus’ death.   His name is first on every list of apostles.

And to Peter only did Jesus say, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.   For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.   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.   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” (Matthew 16:17b-19).

But the Gospels prove their own trustworthiness by the unflattering details they include about Peter.   He clearly had no public relations person.   It is a great comfort for ordinary mortals to know that Peter also has his human weakness, even in the presence of Jesus.

He generously gave up all things, yet he can ask in childish self-regard, “What are we going to get for all this?” (see Matthew 19:27).   He receives the full force of Christ’s anger when he objects to the idea of a suffering Messiah –“Get behind me, Satan!   You are an obstacle to me.   You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (Matthew 16:23b).

Peter is willing to accept Jesus’ doctrine of forgiveness but suggests a limit of seven times. He walks on the water in faith but sinks in doubt.   He refuses to let Jesus wash his feet, then wants his whole body cleansed.   He swears at the Last Supper that he will never deny Jesus and then swears to a servant maid that he has never known the man  . He loyally resists the first attempt to arrest Jesus by cutting off Malchus’ ear but in the end, he runs away with the others.   In the depth of his sorrow, Jesus looks on him and forgives him and he goes out and sheds bitter tears.   The Risen Jesus told Peter to feed his lambs and his sheep (John 21:15-17).

Paul (d. 64?) If the most well-known preacher today suddenly began preaching that your country should adopt Marxism and not rely on the democracy, the angry reaction would help us understand Paul’s life when he started preaching that Christ alone can save us.  He had been the most pharisaic of Pharisees, the most legalistic of Mosaic lawyers.   Now he suddenly appears to other Jews as a heretical welcomer of Gentiles, a traitor and apostate.

Paul’s central conviction was simple and absolute – Only God can save humanity.   No human effort—even the most scrupulous observance of law—can create a human good which we can bring to God, as reparation for sin and payment for grace.   To be saved from itself, from sin, from the devil and from death, humanity must open itself completely to the saving power of Jesus.

Paul never lost his love for his Jewish family, though he carried on a lifelong debate with them about the uselessness of the Law without Christ.   He reminded the Gentiles that they were grafted on the parent stock of the Jews, who were still God’s chosen people, the children of the promise.