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Peter and Paul the Apostles
 Peter
(d.64?).St. Mark ends the first half of his Gospel with a triumphant
climax. He has recorded doubt, misunderstanding and the opposition
of many to Jesus. Now Peter makes his great confession of faith:
"You are the Messiah" (Mark 8:29b).
It was one of the many glorious moments in Peter's life, beginning
with the day he was called from his nets along the Sea of Galilee
to become a fisher of men for Jesus.
The New Testament clearly shows Peter as the leader of the apostles,
chosen by Jesus to have a special relationship with him.
With James and John he was privileged to witness the Transfiguration,
the raising of a dead child to life and the agony in Gethsemani.
His mother-in-law was cured by Jesus. He was sent with John to prepare
for the last Passover Before Jesus' death. His name is First on
every list of apostles.
And to Peter only did Jesus say, "Blessed are you, Simon son
of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but
my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld
shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom
of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven"
(Matthew 16:17b-19).
But the Gospels prove their own veracity by the unflattering details
they include about Peter. He clearly had no PR man. It is a great
comfort for ordinary mortals to know that Peter also has his human
weakness, even in the presence of Jesus.
He generously gave up all things, yet he can ask in childish self-regard,
" What are we going to get for all this?" (see Matthew
19:27). He receives the full force of Christ's anger when he objects
to the idea of a suffering Messiah: "Get behind me, Satan!
You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but
as human begins do" (Matthew 16:23b).
Peter is willing to accept Jesus' doctrine of forgiveness, but suggests
a limit of seven times. He walks on the water in faith, but sinks
in doubt. He refuses to let Jesus wash his feet, then wants his
whole body cleansed. He swears at the Last Supper that he will never
deny Jesus, and then swears to a servant maid that he has never
known the man. He loyally resists the first attempt to arrest Jesus
by cutting off Malchus's ear, but in the end he runs away with the
others. In the depth of his sorrow, Jesus looks on him and forgives
him, and he goes out and sheds bitter tears.
COMMENT:
We would probably go to confession to Peter sooner than to any of
the other apostles. He is perhaps a more striking example of the
simple fact of holiness. Jesus says to us as he said, in effect,
to Peter: "It is not you who have chosen me, but I who have
chosen you. Peter, it is not human wisdom that makes it possible
for you to believe, but my Father's revelation. I, not you, build
my Church."
QUOTE:
"So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he
may exalt you in due time. Cast all you worries upon him because
he cares for you.
"Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling
around like a roaring lion looking for [someone] to devour. Resist
him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout
the world undergo the same sufferings. The God of all grace who
called you to his eternal glory through Christ [Jesus] will himself
restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you after you have suffered
a little" ( 1 Peter 5:6-10).
Paul (d.64?).
If Billy Graham suddenly began preaching that the United States
should adopt Marxism and not rely on the Constitution, the angry
reaction would help us understand Paul's life when he started preaching
that Christ alone can save us. He had been the most Pharisaic of
Pharisees, the most legalistic of Mosaic lawyers. Now he suddenly
appears to other Jews as a heretical welcomer of Gentiles, a traitor
and apostate.
Paul's central conviction was simple and absolute: Only God can
save humanity. No human effort-even the most scrupulous observance
of law---can create a human good which we can bring to God as preparation
for sin and payment for grace. To be saved from itself, from sin,
from the devil and from death, humanity must open itself completely
to the saving power of Jesus.
Paul never lost his love for his Jewish family, though he carried
on a lifelong debate with them about the uselessness of the Law
without Christ. He reminded the Gentiles that they were grafted
on the parent stock of the Jews, who were still God's chosen people,
the children of the promise.
COMMENT:
Paul's experience of the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus was
the driving force that made him one of the most zealous, dynamic
and courageous ambassadors of Christ the Church has ever had. But
persecution, humiliation and weakness became his day-by-day carrying
of the cross, material for the further transformation. The dying
Christ was in him; the living Christ was his life.
QUOTE:
Paul talks about his sufferings: "Five tines at the hands of
the Jews I received forty lashes minus one. Three times I was shipwrecked,
I passed a night and a day on the deep; on frequent journeys, in
dangers from rivers, dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers,
dangers from my own race, dangers from Gentile, dangers in the city,
dangers in the wilderness, dangers at the sea, dangers among false
brothers; in toil and hardship through many sleepless nights through
hunger and thirst, through frequent fastings, through cold and exposure….I
am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and
constraints for the sake of Christ; fir when I am weak, then I am
strong" (2 Corinthians 11:24-27;12:10).
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