This weekend, we celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and
Paul with a series of readings (for the Vigil and for Sunday) that point to the absolute centrality of Jesus in the lives and actions of both of these martyrs. But who
do you say that I am? Jesus asks Peter in Matthew's Gospel.
Our readings give us a sense of the response to that question for both
Peter and Paul, as they worked to grow the early Church, preaching and teaching
and drawing new disciples to Jesus Christ.
For Peter, the response is clear: You are
the Christ, the Son of the Living God, he tells Jesus. Jesus knows that it is God
Himself, my heavenly Father, who has
revealed Jesus's identity to Peter, because Peter has opened himself to knowing
the intangible; he knows who Jesus is with
his heart, because he has allowed God to speak to him. Peter is not perfect: when Jesus is arrested, Peter denies him
three times. But Jesus offers Peter a
way to make up for this betrayal, asking him (again, three times) at the end of John’s Gospel, Simon, Son of John, do you love
me? Peter not only responds to that
love; he will later allow God's healing powers to work through him, enabling the crippled man in Acts 3 to walk and praise God. In his own time of
need, Peter himself will be rescued by
the angel of the Lord (Acts 12) and will sing the Lord’s praises, as had the psalmist before him: I
sought the Lord and he answered me, Psalm 34 tells us. For Peter, Jesus
Christ is both the origin and the object of love, divine and revered, a source
of healing power and strength in times of difficulty. And upon
this rock Jesus builds his church.
For Paul, Christ is a
revelation and a just judge: God revealed his Son to Paul when, as Saul,
he was persecuting the church, a zealot
for his ancestral traditions. Why? Paul understands quite clearly: so that
I might proclaim Jesus Christ to the
Gentiles, he tells the Galatians. For Paul, as for Peter, Jesus is the focal point, the source of his identity, the bearer of the gift of salvation, our crucified Messiah. Paul’s charismatic vision has allowed him
to become a preacher par excellence,
a voice of strength whose message -- the Good News of salvation -- goes
out through all the earth (Psalm 19, read from a Christian perspective).
Mindful of his impending death, Paul tells Timothy that he has kept the faith, confident that Jesus will bring [him] safe to his heavenly
kingdom. Paul, poured out like a libation, trusts that the Lord will give [him] strength.
Both rescued, both sent, Peter and Paul have to answer for
themselves the question, who do you say
that I am? As do we: our search
for an answer to that question is played out every day of our lives. Whether we identify Jesus with the foundational solidity of Peter, or with the charismatic vision and
preaching of Paul, our daily engagement with that question – Who do you say that I am? – gives
meaning and purpose and direction to our lives.
May we, like Saints Peter and Paul, be open to all that Christ can be, a
source of strength and radiant joy, now and always.
Image source (1)
Image source (2): La Délivrance de St. Pierre (Aubin Vouet, 1640), Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, France.
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