The Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Thursday, June 29, 2023

Matthew 16, 13–19

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

The first evidence for the existence of this feast comes from a calendar of Church holy days produced in the fourth century.  This calendar notes that from the year 258 the dual feast of Peter and Paul was celebrated on June 29.  The date commemorates the transfer of the remains of the Apostles, originally buried near the sites of their executions, to one of the catacombs.  The fact that from very early on the two Apostles were venerated together is confirmed by similar feasts in the East, though on different days than June 29.  

Even as young men, neither Simon of Capernaum nor Saul of Tarsus could have imagined how their lives would turn out.  Simon, a successful fisherman, probably married, would have expected to live out his days near the Sea of Galilee.  Saul, an unmarried Pharisee who studied under the wise Rabbi Gamaliel, would have expected to spend the rest of his life in Israel, teaching the Law to others.  But first Simon, and about ten years later, Saul, discovered the Lord Jesus.  Simon met him through his brother Andrew.  Saul, through a vision while persecuting the first Christians in which the Lord Jesus spoke to him.  After long years of service to Jesus, both have up their lives in Rome, where they had brought the Gospel, in the year 67.

Of the two, Simon, whose name the Lord changed to Peter (“rock”), was the more impulsive of the two.  The Evangelists show him numerous times acting and speaking abruptly, making decisions quickly.  His speaking up and confessing that Jesus is the Son of God is part and parcel of this characteristic.  Later, as a further example, when he hears that the Lord has been raised from the dead, Peter (and John) jump up at once and run at breakneck speed to the tomb.  Paul had more reserve and was better educated, so that he could deaf and write.  Paul tended to plan his actions out ahead of time, as we can see from the plans he forms for his missionary journeys.  Both possessed enormous energy and zeal for Christ.  Both men so loved the Lord that they held nothing back in their service to him in their missionary work.  Paul’s touching words of his love for Jesus could have been spoken by Peter, too: “For to me, to live is Christ: and to die is gain” (Philippians 1, 21).  Likewise, Paul’s words towards the end of his life could have been Peter’s: “I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.”  The prize for winning the race was Jesus himself.

We ask Saints Peter and Paul to intercede for us, that though, in awe of the Lord’s glory, we might wish to say, “Leave me Lord for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5, 8), we might say instead, “I count all things to be but loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3, 8).