2014/06/29 - Homily - PETER & PAUL

                                    PETER, PAUL and US

I.

Fortunately for us, this year, the feast of both, Peter and Paul, falls on a Sunday. It happens every six or seven years. So we can read the passages from the Bible for this celebration. 

Following the ancestral tradition of the Christian church, Peter and Paul’s feast is celebrated on the same day. It is also the traditional day for the ordination to priesthood in the world.    

But why are these two saints put together on the same day? And what does that means for us, for our Christian catholic faith?

These two questions and their answers are two parts of the same path of our Christian life.

Why together and what does it means for us?

II.

Peter and Paul are like brothers. In Poland one the chain of food shops...  is called « Piotr i Pawel » I am not doing any advertising here. It is just to say that people have chosen such name for their shops because I think, they want to show that these two men cannot be separated.   

Peter and Paul symbolise two meanings of the role of the Church, its mission and its witness which cannot be separated.

Peter is the first one.  Upon him Christ built the whole Church by choosing a person like him: weak, unstable, but brave, courageous and most of the time obedient. Yes, Christ decided to build his Church using Peter’s personality and his own story, in order to prolong and continue his own life in his beloved disciples.  Peter is the first one to rule the body of Christ: the Church. But according to the scriptures, the role of Peter in the Church and his successors was never to be separated from the one of Paul, and so what does Paul represent? 

Why ?
Because their role in the Church is at the same time a personal and collective one. Peter is the first, but Paul can’t be left apart .Peter represents the establishment of the Church by Christ himself with Rome as the centre of the Christian world. Paul represents the missionary the one who founded many Christian communities in different countries. They are to be linked together as both have a leading role in the life of the Church at its very beginning. 

Following the example of the stable stone of the Church, Peter and the first great missionary, Paul, we must continue their functions in the Church by working together, by helping each other.

Is it easy?  Surely not! But it is the only way to deepen and progress in our faith. Peter and Paul were the first witnesses of the faith; we too must be witnesses of the Christian faith. As they were the servants of their community; we too have to serve others.

Fortunately for them and fortunately for us, this is only possible because they had received the Holy Spirit as we have also received Him. It is only through such a power that we can live our faith. 

Personally and together let us ask the Holy Spirit to give us the strength to live more deeply our Christian faith!  We should not be depressed by our weaknesses; the power of God is there to help us to be joyful and fulfilled our life up to the end. We may sometimes experience the good feeling of freedom coming from our faith; like Peter when he was led out of his prison by the angels. May we experience the marvel of God in our own personal life as well as together in our Christian Community life?