Martyrs of Rome, Founders of the Church: Honoring Peter and Paul on Their Feast
Readings and Virtual Homily for June 29, 2025, Feast of Saints Peter and Paul; London and Paris This Coming Week
Readings for Mass this Sunday:
Acts of the Apostles 12:1-11
Psalm 34:2-9
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18
Matthew 16:13-19
Dear Friends and Family,
As I imagine most of you are aware, there is a hierarchy, so to speak, among the Church's feast days. Most are optional, that is, the priest has the option to celebrate say, the Mass in honor of St. Hilary of Poitiers on his feast day, or the regular daily Mass for that day. Some feast days, however, MUST be observed, must take precedence over the regular celebration of the Mass following the liturgical calendar. Among these obligatory feast days are those noted as solemnities by the liturgists. Solemnities are so important that they even pre-empt the Sunday Masses in Ordinary Time, when they fall on Sunday.
We are celebrating such a feast this Sunday. The Solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul. There is a manual, a guide book, used by priests, to help us keep it all straight with regard to the Church's liturgical seasons and the many feasts, called the Ordo. "The Ordo," as Sr. Sharon McMillan, one of my professors at the seminary, used to like to assure us future priests, "is our friend." This densely packed little handbook tells us not only which feast days fall when, and which are obligatory, it also tells us which readings are assigned for any given Mass, what color vestments to wear, provides prompts for a homily for the Sunday readings and so on.
Following the Ordo's guidance, I am going to give another one of my "Let's let the readings give the homily" reflections here, starting with the reading from Acts of the Apostles.
This reading tells of the first real persecution of the Christian community in Jerusalem; describing how Herod had the Apostle James slain and had Peter arrested and imprisoned under heavy guard. The reading goes on to describe Peter's visitation by an angel and his miraculous escape from the jail. Peter, thinking he is having a vision, and actually still in jail, only realizes that he is free when the angel leaves him and he finds himself alone in a dark alley, not far from the house of the family of Mark the evangelist, to which he subsequently goes.
This escape from the prison, carefully described by Luke (author of Acts) is one of the many miracles in this book of Scripture. I especially like the detail about the prison's big iron gate on the street opening "by itself" (vs. 10). The most obvious take-away for us in this passage is that God had plans for Peter that did not take into account Herod's plans for Peter. God won.
The verse from the psalm might well be expressing some of what Peter must have been feeling in that moment, the moment he came to his senses in the alley. "I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall always be in my mouth," the psalmist begins Psalm 34. "This poor one cried out and the Lord heard," the psalm continues, "and from all his distress he saved him. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he saves them" (vss. 7-8).
The second reading switches our attention to the feast day's other saint, to Paul. This is a famous passage. Paul says that "the time for my departure is at hand," meaning his time on earth is coming to an end (vs. 6). "I have competed well," Paul says. "I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on, the crown of righteousness awaits me" (vs. 7).
The traditional understanding regarding the two letters to Timothy is that they were written by Paul (or a close associate) from Rome, while Paul was kept under (a fairly comfortable) house arrest there. If, in fact, Paul himself wrote the letters the sentiments expressed above make eminent good sense, for he did indeed die in Rome under the first Roman persecution of the Christians (during the reign of Nero and thought to have occurred about the year 67).
Peter also was martyred during this persecution. The Christians at Rome held the tradition for several centuries that Peter was buried on the slopes of one of Rome's many hills -- Vatican Hill. In the fourth century, after the Emperor Constantine and his Christian mother, the Empress (and future saint) Helena had brought an end to the persecutions, it was decided to honor the place of Peter's burial, which is how it is that the Christian world's most famous church, St. Peter's, came to be built there, and which is why we refer to the Church's administrative headquarters simply as "the Vatican."
The passage from Matthew is likewise very well known. It is our "proof text" that Jesus put Peter in charge of the original Christian community. "You are Peter," Jesus says, "and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it" (vs. 18). What is more, "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven," Jesus continues, addressing Peter directly. "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (vs. 19).
Catholic claims to an authoritative, teaching Church, Catholic insistence that the Church is divinely appointed and uniquely equipped to guide men and women safely toward salvation, may be traced ultimately to these two verses from Matthew. Which brings us immediately to a consideration of the Apostolic Succession -- that is, that the promise made to Peter did not die when Peter did. "I will not leave you orphans," Jesus says, in John's version of the Last Supper (John 14:18).
Nor did he. He left us with a mother, as we are fond of putting it; Jesus left us with an authoritative, divinely protected institution which will endure until the end of history. We all know only too well the frailty of the Church's human members, of her leaders. That is beside the specific point I am stressing here: Jesus assured Peter that the Church, HIS Church as he himself insists ("on this rock I will build MY Church") will endure, a rock and refuge, until the end of time.
Just last month we saw the promise of Jesus handed on to Peter's latest successor. Pope Leo XIV is 267th in the Apostolic Succession, 267th in the line stretching back to Peter himself. That reality, and more, is what we celebrate in today's feast, the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles.
We are coming up on a month since graduation at Bishop O'Dowd, that is, one month into not just my summer vacation, but my sabbatical. To date, most of my sabbatical work has consisted of meetings. We have substantial plans at San Gabriel Media, in terms of how to use the coming half year, given my availability. The meetings have covered marketing strategy as much as they have video content, book and video production timelines and so forth. We are about one thing at San Gabriel: Evangelization. That is, we are about getting the Word out, and getting it out in the form of an invitation. An invitation to a banquet. The banquet analogy, in fact, appears to be one we will be incorporating into our presentations on You Tube. It is straight from Scripture, after all, and it suggests something of the light, the grace and joy with which we hope to infuse our efforts.
Although this sabbatical is about getting work done at SGM, I will be taking a couple of nice trips over the coming months. I leave for London Monday evening. Will be in Paris, too. Seeing close friends in both cities. Back July 9 -- it is just five nights in London and three in Paris, because as I say, I have work to do in California.
I'll get an e-mail sent from Paris next week!
Hope this finds you well and happy. Enjoy the early summer!
Love,
Fr. Brawn