Today we celebrate the memorial of Saints Peter and Paul.

Peter:

According to the New Testament, Peter is the apostles’ leader and was hand-picked by Jesus to have a particular relationship with him. He had the honor of witnessing the Transfiguration, the resuscitation of a dying infant, and the suffering in Gethsemane alongside James and John. Jesus healed his mother-in-law of her illness. To get ready for the last Passover before Jesus’ death, he got dispatched with John. On every list of apostles, his name comes first.

Jesus alone addressed Peter when he pronounced, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. Since it was my heavenly Father who showed this to you, not flesh and blood. Jesus tells him, you are Peter, and I will build my church on this rock, making it impenetrable to the gates of hell.

But by including negative details about Peter, the Gospels demonstrate their reliability. He didn’t have a public relations manager. Knowing that Peter experiences human frailties, even in the presence of Jesus, is a great comfort to regular people.

He graciously sacrificed everything, yet he might be so self-centered as to wonder, “What are we going to receive for all this? (Refer to Matthew 19:27). When he protests the thought of a suffering Messiah, Christ is fully furious with him: “Get behind me, Satan! You stand in the way of me. You are reasoning like people, not like God (Matthew 16:23b).

Peter is open to accepting Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness, but he advises a seven-time maximum. Although he has faith, he lowers when he has uncertainty. Peter demands that Jesus bathe his entire body after refusing to let Jesus wash his feet. He makes a solemn vow never to reject Jesus at the Last Supper, but he later makes a similar vow to a housekeeper, claiming to have never met the man. By chopping off Malchus’ ear, Peter bravely opposes the initial effort to arrest Jesus, but in the end, flees with the others. Jesus sees him in his anguish, shows him mercy, and he leaves after weeping bitterly.

Paul:

The outraged response would help us comprehend Paul’s life back before he began preaching that Christ alone can save us (d. 64?) if the most well-known preacher of today suddenly started advocating that the United States adopt Marxism and not rely on the Constitution. He had been the most legalistic and pharisaic of the Mosaic lawyers. Other Jews suddenly perceive him as a traitor, an apostate, and someone who invites Gentiles.

Paul’s core conviction was clear-cut and unwavering: Only God can save people. No human effort—not even the strictest adherence to the Law can produce a good that we may offer to God as atonement for sin and recompense for grace. Humanity must fully submit to the salvific power of Jesus to be saved from itself, from sin, from the devil, and death.

Despite having a lifelong argument with his Jewish family about the futility of the Law apart from Christ, Paul never lost affection for them. He emphasized to the Gentiles that while the Jews were still God’s chosen people and the inheritors of the promise, the Gentiles belonged to their parent line.

source: franciscanmedia.org