St Peter and St Paul
Today we remember two great Apostles, two pillars of the Church, St Peter and St Paul. At the heart of their stories we hear an encounter with Jesus that changed their lives. They both received the love that healed them and set them free.
As we know Peter was a very skilled fisherman from Galilee, but we hear in the Gospels, that many times, he tasted the bitterness of frustration, especially when he hadn’t caught anything all night. He was tempted to pull up his oars and give up. Nevertheless, Jesus loved Peter and encouraged him not to give up, asking him to lower his nets once more, or maybe joining him to walk on the water, or finding the strength to accept his own frailty, and giving his life for his friends by becoming a ‘shepherd of the flock’. In this way, Jesus sets Peter free from fear and all worldly concerns. He gave him the courage to risk everything and the joy of becoming a fisher of men, by coming the first Pope of the Catholic Church.
When Peter denied Jesus three times, in the courtyard at Jesus’ trial, while keeping warm over a charcoal fire, he rejected his relationship with Jesus, by saying: ‘he didn’t know the man.’ After the Resurrection, Jesus gives Peter the opportunity to undo that rejection. Through Jesus’ great love and mercy he invites Peter to repent and return to him by professing his love for him three times, this act undoes the threefold denial in the courtyard, and so restores the relationship between them both.
Jesus’ mercy is so complete, that he does not hold anything against Peter, but instead, gives him the honour and the responsibility of serving him as the ‘Shepherd of his people’.
St Paul also experienced the freedom that was brought by Jesus. He was set free from the slavery of himself. From Saul he became Paul, and moved away from being a zealous defender of his ancestral traditions, into a zealous defender of the Faith in Jesus Christ.
He became open to the love of God and was given the mission to evangelise to the Pagans. The strain of his physical health, the violence and persecution towards him, being shipwrecked several times, the daily pains of hunger and thirst, and finally in his own words: the painful thorn in the flesh, didn’t make him give up.
St Paul came to realise that God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, and we are able to do all things through Jesus who strengthens us and nourishes us, since nothing can ever separate us from the love of the Father.
The Church looks towards these two giants of faith and sees two Apostles who were set free by their encounter with the Lord. Jesus did not judge them, instead he shared their life with affection and closeness. He supported them by his prayers, and at times reproached them to make amends. To Peter, Jesus said gently ‘I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail.’ And to Paul he said, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’
Jesus speaks the same with us, but re-assures us of his closeness through prayer by interceding on our behalf before the Father.
May we continue to mould ourselves closer to the Lord’s Love, making us holier in his sight, by the receiving of the Most Holy Eucharist. When times are tough, may we never give up, asking the Lord for strength and guidance.
We are the Children of God, united together in the ‘Body of Christ’ within the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, with St Peter as our Rock and St Paul as our zealous defender of love and faith.
May we call on their intercession today, to encounter the Lord in our own lives bringing us joy, happiness and peace.
St Peter & St Paul – Pray for us.
Rev. Fr Philip Wrigley's Blog 