Gospel
Reflection
Solemnity
of Saints Peter
and Paul, Apostles
June
29, 2025 Church Year C
Reprinted by
permission
of The “Arlington Catholic Herald”
Peter and Paul
By Fr. Steven G.
Oetjen
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This Sunday we celebrate
the Solemnity
of Saints Peter and Paul, two great apostles with different
personalities and
life trajectories, but united in one faith and one mission.
St. Peter came from
humble beginnings.
Simon, son of John, was a fisherman who worked on the Sea of
Galilee. From
there, he was called by the Incarnate Lord and made a fisher of
men. He began
with a simple recognition that Jesus was no ordinary man — that
Jesus was
someone worthy of being followed, even if that meant leaving
everything else
behind.
Simon’s humble faith in
Jesus was taken
up by the grace of God, so much so that by the time Jesus takes
the apostles to
Caesarea Philippi and asks them, “Who do you say that I am?” he
is able to
reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Christ
proclaims him
blessed because “flesh and blood has not revealed this” to him;
the heavenly
Father has.
It was truly the grace
of God that
lifted Simon’s faith up, far beyond what mere human reason can
perceive. His
name was changed to Peter, which means “rock,” and upon him
Christ built his
church. He was given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. He was
taken from
humble beginnings and lifted up high, to be Christ’s very vicar
on earth.
St. Paul’s life took a
different
course. Born in Tarsus, he was given the name Saul, the name of
the very first
king of Israel. Belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, he was
trained as a
Pharisee and taught by Gamaliel, one of the greatest and most
renowned rabbis
in history. He was righteous in the law and observed it
devoutly. If all of
that wasn’t enough, he could also boast of having the status of
a Roman
citizen.
Saul zealously
persecuted the movement
called the “way,” of which Peter was the visible leader, who
claimed that Jesus
of Nazareth had risen from the dead. From this high and lofty
position, Saul
had to be knocked down and humbled. This occurred as he was on
the road to
Damascus and the Risen Lord Jesus appeared to him. He was
blinded and had to be
led by the hand the rest of the way to Damascus. This began his
conversion. He
now went by Paul, which means “little one.”
Peter and Paul had two
very different
trajectories: one, raised-up from humble beginnings, the other
brought low from
an exalted position. But they both came to the same faith. Paul
eventually
confessed the same faith in Jesus that Peter had first confessed
at Caesarea
Philippi. And Paul also realized that it was no merely human
insight that
allowed him to make this profession: “No one can say ‘Jesus is
Lord’ except by
the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3).
They both came to share
in the same
mission, which is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the
ends of the earth
for the salvation of souls. Peter led the way in this
proclamation, and God
revealed to him first that the Gospel was to be preached to the
Gentiles as
well as to the Jews (Acts 10). Paul followed on this same way
and became an
outstanding evangelizer, known as the Apostle to the Gentiles.
The faith and the
mission that Peter
and Paul shared also led them to the same place: Rome. There,
they both gave
their lives as martyrs for Christ. Their faith in who Jesus is
and their hope
in the eternal life that he promises gave them both a burning
love ready to
sacrifice everything for Jesus. Peter was crucified upside-down,
and Paul was
beheaded.
“Both apostles share the
same feast
day,” says St. Augustine, “for these two were one; and even
though they
suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first,
and Paul
followed. And so, we celebrate this day made holy for us by the
apostles’ blood.
Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors,
their sufferings,
their preaching and their confession of faith.”