To answer the Question posed to us, "Who do you say that I am?" is really to answer by our faith in the Holy Eucharist, saying, "Jesus I believe that You are the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Eucharist is You, the True and Living God still on earth in Your Human resurrected and glorified Body."

Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul. June 29th, 2014

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of St. Peter; we also celebrate St. Paul’s feast day as well. From the earliest of times, the feasts of Sts Peter and Paul have been celebrated as one solemn feast day. These two men were the first leaders of the Church; in fact, they were both ordained bishops and priests; St. Peter directly by our Blessed Lord at the Last Supper, and St. Paul by one of the twelve, most likely Peter himself. And each one suffered martyrdom in the city of Rome. A few years ago during the year of St. Paul, Pope Emeritus Benedict, called us to imitate both of them in giving ourselves completely in trust to Christ and to Christ’s Church.

The lives of St. Peter and St. Paul were quite different in nature. Simon Bar-Jona, to whom Jesus gave the name Peter (meaning Rock), was an uneducated fisherman. He was strong and pragmatic. He was also impetuous, quite often acting before thinking. Paul, on the other hand, was a highly educated Rabbi. He was very educated in both Rabbinical writings and Greek literature. Paul was from a wealthy and influential family of Tarsus, and was born a Roman citizen.

Peter and Paul, were two very different saints, but they also shared much in common. They were both very unlikely characters to be chosen by our Lord; I promise you, we would not have chosen two such as these. Yet, Jesus called them to not only follow Him but to be His Apostles—that is, visible rulers of His Kingdom on earth. They lived their lives completely for Christ and for His Holy Catholic Church. St. Peter and St. Paul also shared the steadfast determination to live and even die for the Kingdom of God—for the Church, even if this meant that they needed to make radical changes in their lives through repentance and conversion: even if this meant they had to make sacrifices. And sacrifices they did make, even to sacrificing of their earthly happiness and their wills and their very lives for the Kingdom of God on earth.

St. Peter was one of the original twelve. We read in today’s Gospel, he was the first disciple to whom the Father, through a special grace of faith, first revealed not only that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, but that He was Divine by Nature, the only Son of the Father; in other words Peter declared that Jesus was God Himself.

By His profession that Jesus was God Himself in the flesh on earth, the Lord gave Simon a new name, Peter or Rock (the first time this name was ever given to a person that we know of…to name a person “Rock”), and told him that the Church would be built on him. Our Lord gave him (and His successors) His own divine authority to govern and lead Jesus’ Church and His own divine power so that whatever Peter would bind and loose on earth would be bound and loosed in heaven. This was truly a great grace. It did not mean that Peter’s leadership and rule would be without struggles, difficulties, and sufferings, as we read in our first reading. It did mean that Peter would be given, unlike any other person, a special grace to assist him for the sake of Christ’s body the Church.

Yes, Peter would fail our Lord, as he did on Holy Thursday by denying he even knew Jesus; but, He would also repent; so fully in fact, that after the resurrection, as our Lord questioned him about his love for him, Peter would affirm thrice his now more humble, but authentic love for Jesus. Peter would affirm his love of Jesus by word, and Jesus for his part would confirm his appointment of Peter as chief of the apostles and Christ’s personal Vicar on earth. Throughout his life, Peter continued to affirm His love for Jesus not just in words but in deeds, most especially by his death—crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to be crucified in a like manner to Jesus his Lord.

St. Paul started as Saul the persecutor of the Church. On the road to Damascus, our risen Lord appeared to him. Like Peter, our Lord changed his name in order to stress the importance of his mission. And then Paul converted radically and began to preach unreservedly and boldly about Jesus and Him crucified. St. Paul too would also struggle and have many difficulties, especially within the community of churches or parishes that he founded. His letters found in the New Testament chronicle many of these struggles with his congregations. Finally he, as Peter, would be martyred as well in Rome. St. Paul was a Roman citizen, so he according to Roman law he couldn’t be crucified so instead he was beheaded by the sword outside the city walls…he literally lost his head for Christ!!!

In the Acts of the Apostles we read about the major events of the lives of Sts. Peter and Paul. But most of their many years chronicled in the Acts of the Apostles were spent in simple prayer and faithful service in the events and details of everyday life. Most of Sts. Peter and Paul’s lives were spent in simple, but faithful service to Jesus, by daily repentance and faithful, obedient, and loving service to the Catholic Church Jesus founded.

For the most part, Peter and Paul were really ordinary folks, like you and me, called by Christ to give extraordinary witness to the grace they had experienced in their lives. When you consider what they were like before they were called and how they ended up, we should be most encourage in our own discipleship of the Lord—their lives show us how far grace can go…and it can go a lot farther than we think, if we cooperate with it by converting, changing our lives more fully to Christ and His Church.

On the feast day of these two great Apostles I think there are three main points we can ponder, and they all have to do with how we answer, not the question, “Who do they say that I am?,” but instead how we answer the question, “Who do you say that I am?” It is a question Jesus poses to every single soul, but especially to you and me personally; it is a question that we must answer, for not to answer is to give our answer.

First of all, do we answer this question put to us by Jesus, “Who do you say that I am?”, do we answer Him with firm faith and conviction along with St. Peter, with the answer, “Yes, Jesus you are Indeed the Son of the Living God; that You are God Himself, the Second person of the Blessed Trinity in Person, equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit.”

Secondly, do we answer this question along with St. Paul, that, “Yes, Jesus, You and Your Body the Church are one; and that to persecute the Church, to hate the Church is too hate You Yourself Jesus!;” for to listen and obey the Church and her teachings is to listen to and obey You Yourself. In order to Love You Jesus, we must also love Your body the Church…for I just can’t love the Head if don’t love the Body (When Saul persecuted the Church, Jesus said to Saul, not why are persecuting the Church, but why are persecuting me!)." And so Love for Christ, can only be authentic if it is shown by love for the Church He Himself personally founded, the Catholic Church.

And finally, to answer the question posed to us, “Who do you say that I am?” is really to answer by our faith in the Holy Eucharist, saying, “Jesus I believe that You are the Holy Eucharist, and the Holy Eucharist is You, the true and living God still on earth in Your human, resurrected and glorified body, hidden from our sight, from a senses but nonetheless truly before me in order for me to adore You and to receive You as my heavenly food and become One with You and with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit.” Without this part of our answer the question has not been answered adequately, and to the satisfaction of Jesus. And so this part of the answer must be given not just with our words by with our faith in action by coming before the Holy Eucharist falling on our knees and adoring the Godhead hidden there, truly, physically, personally present in the Holy Eucharist the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar…this is what last week’s solemnity of Corpus Christi, was all about, believing that the Eucharist is God and God is the Eucharist; and that the Eucharist contains the whole Christ along with His most Sacred Heart, pierce but now alive beating for love of us, the source of the sacramental life of the Church from which springs all the graces for the conversion and salvation of our world and the souls in it.

Let us end with a prayer.

Dear Blessed Mother we turn to you in great confidence pleading to your Immaculate Heart for an increase of Faith, Hope and Charity, so we can imitate the two great apostles who lives of faith we celebrate today, and like them change our lives for the better through a radical personal conversion to Jesus and His Church. The source of their heroic lives of faith, their deep repentance was their own belief in the Holy Eucharist as God among us. Help us to answer Jesus’ question posed to us personally today, as they did, by coming before His True Presence in the Holy Eucharist, believing, adoring, hoping and loving Him there, begging pardon for all those who don’t believe, don’t adore, don’t hope and don’t love Him there. Obtain for us, we plead, the grace to be great witnesses to the Holy Eucharist, sacrificing our will in love to Him and His Holy Church, even to the shedding of our blood, as did Sts. Peter and Paul. Help us to begin today by completely offering Jesus our heart at this Holy Mass through your Immaculate Heart so we may receive His Sacred Heart fruitfully in Holy Communion and become one with God the Father and the Son, and one another in the Love of the Holy Spirit! Amen.