Their message goes out to all the earth!
Are we ready to do our part to ensure that this is so?
The lives of Saints Peter and Paul are so important that, even when the solemnity dedicated to them falls on a Sunday, it is still celebrated with two sets of readings (one for the vigil and one for the solemnity itself). In an important way, this celebration is not just about who these two men are – the very foundation of the early Church!— it is also about what they started and why, about how the Church continues to care for its people, and, finally, how we must continue their work still today.
In Matthew’s Gospel, Simon Peter, the Rock on whom Jesus will build his church, will not wield the authority he is entrusted with lightly. Because Simon Peter trusted the revelation God made to him – You are the Christ, the Son of the living God! – he is given the keys to the Kingdom of heaven, keys made for those particular locks that are people’s hearts. The keys are the very power of God’s love at work in the world; through Simon Peter, God will bind the hearts of the people to his own heart, loosening the chains that keep them from residing there. Simon Peter's journey will not be without issues. After all, it is Simon Peter who denies Jesus three times, and who thus must, in John’s Gospel, reaffirm his love for the Lord three times: Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Once he has done so, as we see in Acts, Peter can begin to share the Word, serving as a conduit for the power of Christ still at work among them as he takes the hand of a man crippled from birth and raises him up, making the man both physically and spiritually whole. Simon Peter will be taken into custody and put into prison repeatedly throughout the early chapters of Acts, but, as Psalm 34 reminds us, The angel of the Lord rescues those who fear him, and so God's work through Simon Peter continues. He will hold the early Church of Jews and Gentiles together in Rome until his martyrdom circa 64 AD.
Paul’s journey will be equally difficult. Having, as he tells the Galatians, renounced his former way of life in Judaism, in which he persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it, Paul will experience his own moment of revelation, when God is pleased to reveal his Son to Paul on the road to Damascus. Even as his death approaches, Paul remains faithful to the good news he has preached. Having been rescued from the lion’s mouth, Paul knows that, whatever the authorities might do to him, nothing can change what God can do and has done with him and through him. As with Simon Peter, salvation is at work in Paul throughout his ministry. He does not hold onto the grace he has been given for himself, but rather, as the Second Letter to Timothy reminds us, pours that grace out like a libation, letting it flow out to his world.
For both Simon Peter and Paul it can indeed be said, echoing Psalm 19, that their message went out to all the earth. Like Paul, we are meant to welcome the grace that is poured out for us as God works in our lives, not holding onto it but allowing it to flow from us to our world. Like Simon Peter, we may be led where we do not want to go. And yet no matter the challenges, we are called to share the Word of God with all, so that through all the earth their voice resounds, and to the ends of the world, their message!
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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