On This Rock I Will Build My Church
Introduction
Today we celebrate with joy the solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. They are the two pillars on whom our Lord built his Church and to whom he entrusted the faith. Their own faith had been tested, when Peter denied Christ and Paul persecuted Christ in his disciples. Then their faith was strengthened and they dedicated their whole life to the spread of the gospel. We can learn from them today how to let Christ possess us so much that we live for him and his Church and are even willing to suffer for that faith. Let us give thanks today to the Lord for giving us these great apostles.
First Reading: The Gospel Cannot Be Chained
Peter is imprisoned for preaching Christ’s liberating message. While the young Church prays for Peter, God frees his faithful apostle, for the gospel cannot be chained.
1 Reading: Acts 12:1-11
About that time King Herod decided to persecute some members of the Church. He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword, and when he saw how it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This happened during the festival of the Unleavened Bread. Herod had him seized and thrown into prison with four squads, each of four soldiers, to guard him. He wanted to bring him to trial before the people after the Passover feast, but while Peter was kept in prison, the whole Church prayed earnestly for him. On the very night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound by a double chain, while guards kept watch at the gate of the prison. Suddenly an angel of the Lord stood there and a light shone in the prison cell. The angel tapped Peter on the side and woke him saying, “Get up quickly!” At once the chains fell from Peter’s wrists. The angel said, “Put on your belt and your sandals.” Peter did so, and the angel added, “Now, put on your cloak and follow me.” Peter followed him out; yet he did not realize that what was happening with the angel was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first guard and then the second and they came to the iron door leading out to the city, which opened of itself for them. They went out and made their way down a narrow alley, when suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter recovered his senses and said, “Now I know that the Lord has sent his angel and has rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from all that the Jews had in store for me.”
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
R. (5) The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad. R.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears. R.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him. R.
The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him. R.
Second Reading: An Apostle Faithful to the Faithful Lord
At the end of his life Paul can testify that he has been a faithful witness to the Lord who has been faithful to him and given him strength. Now he looks forward to encountering the Lord for ever.
2 Reading: 2 Tim 4;6-8, 17-18
As for me, Paul, the time of sacrifice has arrived, and the moment of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness with which the Lord, the just judge, will reward me on that day; and not only me, but all those who have longed for his glorious coming. But the Lord was at my side, giving me strength to proclaim the Word fully, and let all the pagans hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will save me from all evil, bringing me to his heavenly kingdom. Glory to him for ever and ever. Amen!
Gospel: Peter, the Rock
Peter, the man of faith who acknowledges Christ as the Messiah, is made the rock on which the Lord builds his Church, which he will never abandon. Peter is for the Church the center of faith, authority and unity.
Gospel Reading: Matthew 16:13-19
Jesus came to Caesarea Philippi. He asked his disciples, “What do people say of the Son of Man? Who do they say I am?” They said, “For some of them you are John the Baptist, for others Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Jesus asked them, “But you, who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “It is well for you, Simon Bar-Jona, for it is not flesh or blood that has revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. “And now I say to you: You are Peter (or Rock) and on this rock I will build my Church; and never will the powers of death overcome it. “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and what you unbind on earth shall be unbound in heaven.”
Commentary
Today we celebrate the memories of Peter and Paul, two foundational pillars of the Church, who are men with strange histories as well. One denied Jesus three times; the other persecuted God’s own people. Jesus’s founding the Church on them is a vote of confidence, love, and trust in them; and a reminder to us that it is not our merits that make us members of his Church, but the sheer grace of God, and that it is the Spirit that leads the Church, and not any human power or perfection.
These are days when our Mother Church has been rocked by many scandals, and we are out there frantically taking measures to clean it up with “zero tolerance.” But in our zealous drive to cleanse the Church of every fallibility, let us not forget that both the sinning and the sinned against deserve our justice and compassion so that neither of them will be lost. For, all are God’s people, and Christ would not want to lose any one of them (Jn 6:39).
Today is also the memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Mary’s “pondering in her heart” could surely the headline for Christian contemplation. Her heart sheltered the early Church led Peter and Paul. Some Churches moved the Solemnity of SS Peter and Paul to Sunday, so as to celebrate the Immaculate Heart today, following immediately the Solemnity yesterday of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Interesting reading on PETER in the spirit of today’s Feast:
“I do so love St Peter,” says a friend of mine. “Whenever he opens his mouth, he puts his foot in it”.
She is right, of course. Whatever else St Peter may be, he is not the model of a wise and noble hero. He walks on the water – but then panics and starts to sink. He makes the first profession of faith – and moments later blunders into error and is called Satan by the Lord. He refuses to be washed, and then, when the purpose is explained to him, demands to be washed all over. And, of course, he betrays his master soon after having been warned that he will and having sworn not to. If Peter is the rock on which the Church is built, what a fissured and friable rock it is! How much better, we think, to have chosen the Sons of Thunder, for their energy; or Judas Iscariot, for his financial acumen; or John, because he was loved the best.
The choosing of Peter teaches us a lesson. The Church’s foundation-stone and its first leader is not all-wise, all-knowing, good, heroic, and beautiful. He is a very ordinary man who makes about as many mistakes as we would in his place, and kicks himself for them just as thoroughly afterwards. If St Peter had been a hero, we could easily have despaired of ever becoming like him. If St Peter had been great, and noble, and good, we could have told ourselves that the Church is for the saints, despaired, sat down, and not bothered. But the Church is not just for saints: it is for confused, impetuous, cowardly people like us – or St Peter. The rock crumbles, the ropes are frayed, the wood is rotten – but, although that improbable building, the Church, is made of such inferior materials, it grows (on the whole) faster than it collapses, and it is grace that holds it together.
In the end, it was grace that gave the coward the courage to bear witness when it counted, grace that gave the fool the wisdom he needed to set the infant Church on her way, grace that taught the impetuous man patience and forbearance.
We none of us admire ourselves, however much we would like to; let us not try to admire St Peter either, but admire instead the grace he was given, and pray that, weak as we are, we may be given it too, and may use it. (cf. Catholic Encyclopaedia).
Blessing
Let us ask for God’s blessing,
that we may be the Church of Peter,
firm in the faith, built on rock,
united as the one body of Christ
which cannot be overcome.
May we also be the Church of Paul,
dynamic, without boundaries,
restless until Christ is known to all.
May God bless you and this one Church:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Let us go and be to the whole world
the body of the Lord. R/ Thanks be to God.