Solemnity of Sts. Peter & Paul, Apostles

This Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul goes back to the third century, and it’s a blessing to have it fall on a Sunday this year.

Peter was a businessman, a fisherman, who left his trade to follow Jesus. Though often weak of heart and misguided, at other times, he was inspired, insightful and fearless. After Jesus’s Ascension, Peter went west and became the first bishop of Antioch. He then went further west, where along with St. Paul, he established Rome’s Christian community, right in the capital of the empire. There he served as Rome’s first bishop (Eusebius).

An ancient story tells us that in the midst of persecution against the Christians, Peter decided to flee Rome. On the famous Appian Way, just outside of Rome, he suddenly encountered Jesus who was walking the opposite direction, into Rome. “Quo vadis, Domine? (Where are you going, Lord?)” Jesus responded that he was going into Rome to be crucified again. That was enough to give Peter resolve to turn around and to resume his place as leader of the Christian community. Soon after he was arrested.

Paul, first known to us as Saul of Tarsus, was Pharisee of the highest pedigree and well-educated. Jesus first spoke to him from the heavens and with a blinding flash of light, derailed Paul as a persecutor, putting him on a new course.

He went on to make three major missionary journeys, any one of which would have been a feat unto itself. At the end of the third journey, Paul had returned to Jerusalem. There he was arrested and would have been condemned to death immediately if he had not requested a hearing before the emperor—a right he held as an official citizen of Rome. He made the long journey to Rome by ship and remained there under house arrest.

In the Roman Forum, at the opposite end of the Colosseum, existed a cistern built into the ground, built around 400 B.C. It came to be used as prison, and it’s believed that both Peter and Paul were detained there.

Peter’s imprisonment ended in the year 64. He was taken to a public location just outside of the walls of ancient Rome, a place known as Nero’s Circus. In the middle of this public venue, existed an obelisk that would have been visible to Peter as he was crucified upside down. That obelisk remains in place today, but we now know that location as St. Peter’s Square (Tertullian and Origen of Alexandria). He was buried very close by in a simple grave. His remains are still there—a mere 10 feet directly below the main altar of what we today call St. Peter’s Basilica.

Paul’s imprisonment concluded around that same time, when he was to face his execution. Unlike Peter, as a Roman citizen, Paul would not be subjected to the hideous punishment of crucifixion. Only a short distance from where he was beheaded, rests an ancient sarcophagus inscribed with the words “Paul apostle martyr”, at we today know as the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Most of us know the legend of Rome’s beginnings, associated with the twins, Remus and Romulus. Rome came to be one of the great cities of human history. Some centuries later, another pair of brothers—spiritual brothers—would give way to Rome’s rebirth.

Early Christian writers often contrasted Rome’s founders, Remus and Romulus with Peter and Paul. According to the ancient Roman myth, Rome was violently established when Romulus killed his brother as they laid the city’s walls. In contrast, Peter and Paul built up the civilization of love found in the Church with brotherly affection. 

The Roman Empire established by Remus and Romulus, would rule the world through fear and violence under the shroud of the pax romana, whereas Peter and Paul would set the example for the Church to serve the world through faith and charity under the mantle of the pax Christi. The spiritual kingdom of the Church would far surpass the boundaries of time and space to which the Roman Empire had aspired. An ancient poem, Decora lux aeternitatis, declared: 

Peter and Paul, the Fathers of great Rome, Now sitting in the Senate of the skies,

One by the cross, the other by the sword, Sent to their thrones on high, to Life’s eternal prize.

Every five years every bishop in the world is required to make an ad limina visit to Rome. While it also includes an opportunity to visit with the pope, the head of the bishops and successor to St. Peter, the principle purpose is that they might pray at the respective tombs of the two great apostles, Peter and Paul, and to pray for strength.

One of the great Catholic theologians of recent times, Hans Urs von Balthazar, contrasted the distinct roles that Peter and Paul served:

• Peter, who led the original band of the twelve, stands for office, structure, hierarchy and headship—the ways that the Church is ordered to carry out its mission. And so every priest, bishop, pastor and pope is, in a sense, a disciple of Peter.

  
  

• Paul, who went out to the nations as an evangelist to the Gentiles, stands for mission, the engagement of the culture, and proclamation. Every missionary, teacher, preacher, and theologian is, in this sense, a disciple of Paul.

Without the discipline that comes through what Peter’s inspiration brings, the work inspired by Paul would be unfocused and greatly risks unraveling. But without the inspiration and energy of what Paul brought, the work inspired by Peter would become reduced into mere management and Church bureaucracy. These two in harmony, have moved the Church through time and space (Robert Barron, Catholicism, p141).

Father Robert Barron recalls that in“1933, Pope Pius XI (successor to Peter) invited Christian missionaries to take the Gospel literally to the ends of the world, to ensure that the message was heard everywhere. The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate took up the challenge. A group was sent to the northern region of Canada, where they proclaimed Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Then they asked, ‘Are there any people further north?’ When they learned that there were, they found that community and proclaimed Jesus to them. This process continued until they came, finally, to a tiny gathering of people who said, ‘No, we’re the last ones.’ When the oblates preached at last to them, they returned to Rome with the message: ‘We’ve announced Jesus Christ to the ends of the world.’ Without Peter and Paul (these glorious and heroic martyrs) this sort of energy and disciplined determination would not have been possible” (Catholicism, p42).

St. Peter, Prince of Apostles…pray for us!     St. Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles…pray for us!