For those of us who constantly struggle to live our faith in a world increasingly hostile to the practice of Christian virtue, the lives of the saints can be a real inspiration. But they can also be a bit of an obstacle. I don't know about you, but sometimes the Saints seem to set a standard of holiness and virtue so high as to be virtually unattainable. The holiness of a Therese, or a Francis of Assisi, or a Mother Teresa, or the courage and submission of the martyrs can seem so beyond our reach that we become discouraged on our own journey of faith. How can we ever hope to measure up? How can we ever achieve the saintliness that God wants for each of us?
And yet, it's important to realize that saints don't become saints solely through their own efforts. Indeed, no one can become a saint. It’s God who makes saints. The two saints we honor today are among the best examples of God's saint-making handiwork.
For today we celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, the greatest of the Apostles, two men called by Jesus Christ, specially chosen: one to lead His Church and the other to spread the Faith throughout the world. Although each was a man of tremendous faith, and each would die a martyr's death in Rome, God could hardly have chosen two more different or more unlikely men than Peter and Paul.
Simon Peter, the callused, sun-burnt fisherman. The man of action, the rough and tumble blue-collar worker of 1st Century Palestine. A man of emotion, full of bluster and passion who often spoke and acted without thinking. A seemingly simple, straightforward man. And yet, beneath the surface, a complex man filled with contradictions. A man who readily responded to Jesus' call, but often resisted the message and mission that went with it. A man who spent three years with Jesus listening to a message he didn't really comprehend. A man whose faith underwent wild swings from deeply fervent to barely lukewarm. A man who could pledge undying loyalty to Jesus one day, then deny Him the next. A man who failed the test as often as he passed it.And yet this is the man, Simon Peter, this complex mix of human strength and weakness, whom Jesus chose to lead His Church. For it’s Peter who dares to answer the Lord's question in today's Gospel reading, "And you, who do you say that I am?" It’s Peter who accepts and openly proclaims the revelation he has received from the Father: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God." And so it’s Peter to whom Jesus then turns and declares: "You are 'Rock,' and on this rock I will build my church."
Commissioned by Jesus, he is first among the Apostles, the first Vicar of Christ, the first Pope, the one chosen to represent the entire church: "I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you declare bound on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven." The authority and responsibility promised to Peter by these words was likely lost on him at the time. For it’s only later that he begins to understand what will be asked of him.
Recall how, shortly after the Resurrection, Peter and several of the Apostles share a breakfast of loaves and fishes prepared by the Risen Jesus. They are on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, sitting around a charcoal fire that Jesus had made, a fire similar to the one at which Peter had warmed himself in the high priest's courtyard the night Jesus was arrested. After they had eaten, Jesus asks Peter to confess his love, not once, but three times, as if to give him a triple chance to atone for his triple denial, to let him recapture what he lost when, overcome by fear, he turned his back on the Lord. By now Peter knows he is weak, and so he places all in Christ's hands: "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you."
After each declaration of love, Peter is told, "Feed my lambs, feed my sheep." With these words, Jesus' earlier promise is fulfilled. Peter is singled out. He alone is given primacy. He becomes the shepherd of the entire flock, the universal church. And because "the jaws of death shall not prevail against" the church, Peter's authority is passed on to his successors down through history to our present day, even until the end of time.
Then, on that first Pentecost, just a few weeks later, we see a new Peter, now filled with the Holy Spirit, no longer fearful but bursting with enthusiasm to spread the Gospel and baptize -- a man transformed. Such is the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of God's grace, that it turns weakness into strength, cowards into martyrs, fishermen into popes. Peter is the Rock, not because of Peter, but because of Jesus.
Peter, the ordinary man who went on to do extraordinary things for God, gives us more than an example to follow. He gives us, the ordinary men and women of today, that which we need more than anything else. He gives us Hope, and reminds us of the greatness to which we are all called. But like Peter, we can realize that greatness only if we first humbly acknowledge our own emptiness and weakness before God.
In contrast to Peter, Paul was no ordinary man. He came from Tarsus, a Hellenized cosmopolitan city in Asia Minor, a local center of culture, philosophy, and education. An educated Jew and a Roman citizen, he was also a Pharisee, one of those legalistic nit-pickers so caught up in the minutia of Mosaic Law that they had lost any understanding of its spirit. "Hypocrites!" Jesus called them, "A brood of vipers." Clearly the Pharisees were not high on his list.We first encounter Paul, then named Saul, early in the book of Acts. He takes part in the execution of Stephen, the first Christian martyr -- and, I might add, a deacon -- by guarding the cloaks of those who cast the killing stones. He then becomes a zealous persecutor of the early Christian Church -- an unlikely candidate for sainthood. But God had other plans for Paul.
We all know the story of Paul's miraculous conversion when Jesus reveals Himself on the road to Damascus. And like Peter, Paul can accept Jesus only because he first recognizes the truth about himself. Indeed, his conversion is symbolized by the scales that cover his eyes and blind him...scales that are removed only when he enters the embrace of the Church. Paul not only embraces the Church, he goes on to become the greatest of evangelists, the Apostle to the gentiles, spreading the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire. As the spiritual descendants of those first-century gentiles, we owe Paul, more than any other, a debt of gratitude for our Christian faith.
But Paul knows that the glory for his work goes to God, for it is through God's grace that he was brought to the Truth, and it is God's grace that sustained him in his ministry. Recall the words of today's second reading, written by an imprisoned Paul as he awaits martyrdom, "But the Lord stood by my side and gave me strength, so that all the nations might hear the gospel. To Him be glory forever and ever."
Jesus gave the Church these two great Apostles: Peter who had been Simon and Paul who had been Saul. Peter the fisherman, the small-town Galilean Jew. Paul the Pharisee, the scholar of the Law. Peter always conscious of the Faith's Old Testament roots, and Paul who found in Christ, "all things new." Peter who had lived and walked with Jesus. Paul who encountered Him outside of time itself on the road to Damascus. Peter and Paul in Rome. Peter in chains. Paul imprisoned. Peter crucified on an inverted cross because he felt unworthy to die as His Lord had died. Paul martyred by the sword, as befit a citizen of Rome.
Two very different men, and yet their message and their example of total abandonment to God's Will go out through all the earth…then and now.
To Him be glory forever and ever!
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