Solemnity of
Saints Peter and Paul, apostles
Acts
12:1-11; II Timothy 4:6-8.17-18; Matthew 16:13-19)
Saints Peter and Paul testify to the inclusiveness of the
Church. Peter was a fisherman from
Galilee, well within the territory of Israel.
Paul, a member of the Jewish diaspora, hailed from Tarsus in Asia
Minor. Peter worked as a fisherman
before he encountered the Lord. Paul, a scholar,
served as a Jewish inquisitor when Jesus abruptly called him. Although both had missions to non-Jews, Peter,
it seems, worked primarily among his own people while Paul preached far and
wide to Greek-speakers. Their lives
converged for at least a third time in Rome where they were martyred.
More importantly than dying during the same wave of
persecution, they both preached Jesus Christ.
In today’s gospel, Peter identifies Jesus as “’the Christ, the Son of
the living God.’” Paul will give full
meaning to those words when he writes of reconciliation through Christ, the
Son. As the Pauline letter to the
Ephesians states, humans are reconciled not only to God but to one another through
Christ.
Today we honor Peter and Paul together as patrons of the
whole Church. More than any other saint,
the two represent the Church’s apostolicity and universality. They left the security of their homes and
indeed their homelands to tell others about God’s work in Jesus. They reached the symbolic crossroad of the earth
in Rome where they testified with their blood to God’s love for all in Jesus.
