Jun. 28, 2010

Peter and Paul. How many times have I heard those two names? It would seem like divine providence that they both have a name that starts with the same letter, no? I guess since God changed both of their names, it was. These two men lived several thousand years ago. So long ago, in fact, that they often seem more like fictional characters than real men to me. Sometimes they seem more real than others though. I remember being in Greece several years ago at some of the locations where Paul had stood, preached, and suffered. He felt very real at to me then. But a lot of times he and Peter seem fictional. Peter, the bumbling idiot type who was always saying the wrong things. Paul, the really smart one who wrote a lot of the New Testament but said some things about women that you are nervous to read out loud. Good characters in God’s story, but removed from most of us culturally and all of of us by time. But removed as they may be, they were real.

I read earlier today of one of Peter’s last encounters with Jesus. Jesus ask’s Peter three times if he loves him and “Peter was upset that he asked him a third time, ‘Do you love me?” and said, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know I love you.’ Feed my sheep” says Jesus (John 21). I can feel this passage deep in my gut. I think any of us who have failed Jesus can. Peter is having to deal with the fact that he denied Jesus three times when Jesus needed him most. I’m sure his words, “even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you” (Matthew 26:33) were ringing in his ears. Peter was humbled to say the least. But, as it turns out, Peter did feed Jesus sheep. And his words, along with Paul’s, continue to feed the sheep. For two thousand years we have been fed by the lives and words of these two men who lived for/in the Kingdom of God: Peter and Paul.

Jesus said something else to Peter after he said “Feed my sheep”.

“In all truth I tell you, when you were young, you put on your own belt and walked where you liked; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and somebody else will put a belt around you and take you where you would rather not go.’ In these words he indicated the kind of death by which Peter would give glory to God. After this he said, ‘Follow me’”.

And Peter did follow Jesus. So did Paul. And the world has been changed because they did.

It is believed that both Peter and Paul were killed in late June of 64 a.d. by Nero. Today in my mid-day prayers I read a homily written by St. John Chrysostom. Here, late in June as I read these words, these two men feel real again.

“O holy Apostles, how shall we thank you, you who have labored so much for us! I am filled with admiration whenever I think of you, Peter; when I remember you, Paul, I am moved to tears. My lips are mute when I consider your sufferings. How many prisons you have sanctified! How many chains you have adorned! How many pains you have suffered! How many curses you have borne! YOU bore Christ in your hearts; you refreshed the Christian communities through your sermons. Praised be the work of your tongues. For the sake of the Church your garments were sprinkled with blood. You imitated Christ in all; your voices penetrated a world, and your message crossed all boundaries of the earth. Rejoice, O Peter, that you were worthy to partake of the Cross of Christ; you desired to hang upon the Cross after the pattern of your Master Christ, not upright like the Lord, but head downward, as if you wished to journey from earth to heaven. Rejoice, O Paul, you who were beheaded with a sword. This sword which severed your neck, this instrument of the Lord, is admired by heaven and revered by earth. For me this sword should be a crown, and the nails of Peter’s cross, diamonds for a diadem”.

St. John Chrysostom

(Taken from “The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime” [Phyllis Tickle])