Saints Peter and Paul 2025
Acts 12:1-11 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18 Matthew 1613-19
Three weeks ago we celebrated the Feast of Pentecost, the Birth of the Church. In a sense, today we celebrate something of the Reality of the Church. We are inclined to talk about Church in two ways; the Magisterium of the Church and the People of God. Saints Peter and Paul represent both concepts and provide us with a double-sided view of the Reality of the Church.
It is a shame that too often we divide the Magisterium of the Church into slots of ‘Conservative’ and ‘Progressive’. The gift of the Church given by Jesus is a treasure to be conserved and all of it which is good must be protected and conserved. Of course the Church must be ‘Conservative’ but it must move on also. The stability of what has been conserved will give impetus and protection when the Church moves on to cater for the needs of a particular time or people.
Peter could be said to represent the conservative aspect of the church while Paul is the one who goes out and makes the message of the Church relevant in the mission field of the world. Peter is one on whom Jesus personally bestowed the ‘Keys’, the authority to bind and loose and stability of a Rock – apostolic leadership.
Paul, never met Jesus in the flesh, but by the strength of the Spirit he was empowered with evangelical energy. Their shared and individual characteristics, too, are representative of what the human race is like. They have strengths and weaknesses like all of us.
Peter’s calling was less dramatic than Paul’s and his opportunities to express loyalty to the person of Christ more obvious but he is the one we remember for having to be pushed by the Lord to express that loyalty and also for his three denials of Jesus.
Paul is the one who came back from a life of sin and evil to a life of absolute commitment to the preaching of the Good News.
They are the twin pillars of the Church and are rarely separated in liturgies or iconography and even today the Church speaks of them as if ecclesiastical union can only be expressed by linking them and showing how they complement each other. But when celebrated separately they are seen as very different figures.
Peter is celebrated individually on the Feast of the ‘Chair of Peter’: the Pope, the Vicar of Christ, the one with authority and responsibility.
Paul’s individual feast is the ‘Conversion of St Paul’: the convert, the renewed one, the transformed one, the one who was very evidently chosen and sent. He is one, who when called, exercised his freedom to respond and then felt the personal freedom to preach in his unique way.
The Liturgy today speaks to us of the authority of the Church and the Gospel. It emphasises the balance there is in our Church, the space there is in our Church for all people and it calls all of us to exercise the freedom of children of God to bring the Good News to all.