Saint Peter & Saint Paul, Apostles - Year C - Saints Peter & Paul, the Great Witnesses & “We Are Surrounded”

Peter and Paul were great men. It is common in preaching to hear about Peter’s failures — his weaknesses and false steps, which the Gospels make no attempt to hide. When we first meet Paul, he is persecuting the Church. While Peter and Paul were both flawed, one of the things that makes them both great is that they acknowledge their flaws.

In one of his letters, Paul claims to boast in his weakness. Some of the first words out of Simon Peter’s mouth in the Gospel of Luke are, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man”. Yet, in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter raises the dead to life. The faithful of Jerusalem bring their sick into the streets just so that Peter’s shadow will fall upon them. Paul becomes the most remarkable missionary in history. In this weekend’s Gospel, we hear those remarkable words from the mouth of the Lord himself, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” The greatness of both Peter and Paul comes from Jesus.

The Lord does the building. He gives Simon the fisherman a new name and a new identity, and he reorients the life of Paul in every way on the road to Damascus. The greatness of these apostles comes not because they took a self-help course or even because they refined some aspect of their personality. The theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar points out, “Simon the fisherman could have explored every region of his ego prior to his encounter with Christ, but he would not have found ‘Peter’”. If Simon had taken a Myers-Briggs test, the results most certainly would not have read “Prince of the Apostles.” Only encountering Jesus could transform him into the new man he became.

In the dramatic story of Peter’s escape from imprisonment in the First Reading, the apostle does not hatch a clever plan to chisel through the wall. Instead, he follows the promptings of the angel who appears to him, seeming almost dazed as he does so. In Paul’s letter to Timothy, the apostle speaks of a kind of self-emptying, of being “…poured out like a libation.” God acts in Peter and Paul, and their greatness comes from the degree to which they are able to let go of themselves — their egos, their fears, their self-will — and cooperate with God’s plans for them.

Peter and Paul were unique in the role they were called to play in the foundation of the Church, but they did not keep their formula for greatness a secret. The Lord invites all of us to the same greatness, whatever the specifics of our mission here on earth may be. We are called to be saints, to let go of ourselves and let Jesus live in us.

In honor of the Feast of St. Peter & St. Paul, we would like to share our latest video, "We Are Surrounded", a hymn that draws inspiration from Hebrews 12:1-3, inviting listeners to envision a great cloud of witnesses and saints encouraging them to persevere in faith, laying aside every hindrance and fixing their eyes on Jesus. This hymn uplifts with the assurance that, despite life’s challenges, we are never alone as we run the race set before us.

Video can be watched by clicking here or by clicking on the thumbnail below.