Apostles
Peter and Paul; Sermon of Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo
Today the Holy Church piously
remembers the sufferings of the Holy Glorious and All-Praised
Romæ natális sanctórum
Apostolórum Petri et Pauli, qui eódem anno eodémque die
passi sunt, sub Neróne Imperatóre. Horum prior, in eádem
Urbe, cápite ad terram verso cruci affíxus, et in Vaticáno
juxta viam Triumphálem sepúltus, totíus Orbis veneratióne
celebrátur; postérior autem, gládio animadvérsus,
et via Ostiénsi sepúltus, pari honóre habétur.
At Rome,
the birthday of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, who suffered martyrdom
on the same day, under Emperor Nero. Within the city the former was
crucified with his head downwards, and buried in the Vatican, near the Triumphal
Way, where he is venerated by the whole world. The latter was put to
the sword and buried on the Ostian Way, where he received similar honours.
ST PETER, PRINCE OF
THE APOSTLES (A.D. 64?) ["Prince" is from Latin princeps, meaning simply supreme head
or leader. The equivalent Greek term is in
Byzantine usage is applied to both St Peter and St Paul; this term was applied
to the leader of the chorus in Attic drama; hence eventually coryphée, the chief dancer in a
ballet.]
THE story of St Peter as recounted in the gospels is so familiar that there
can be no need to retrace it here in detail. We know that he was a Galilean,
that his original home was at Bethsaida, that he was married, a fisherman,
and that he was brother to the apostle St Andrew. His name was Simon, but
our Lord, on first meeting him, told him that he should be called Kephas,
the Aramaic equivalent of the Greek word whose English form is Peter (i.e.
rock). No one who reads the New Testament can be blind to the predominant
role which is everywhere accorded to him among the immediate followers of
Jesus. It was he who, as spokesman of the rest, made the sublime profession
of faith: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God"; and it was to
him personally that our Saviour, with a solemnity of phrase which finds no
parallel in the rest of the gospel narrative, addressed the words: "Blessed
art thou Simon bar-Jona, because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee,
but my Father who is in Heaven. And I say to thee, that thou art Peter, and
upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail
against it; and I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven; and
whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in Heaven; and
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in Heaven."
Not less familiar is the story of Peter's triple denial of
his Master in spite of the warning he had previously received. The very fact
that his fall is recorded by all four evangelists with a fullness of detail
which seems out of proportion to its relative insignificance amid the incidents
of our Saviour's passion, is itself a tribute to the position which St Peter
occupied among his fellows. On the other hand, if our Lord's warning met with
no response, we must also remember that it was prefaced by those astounding
words, with their strange change from the plural to the singular: "Simon,
Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat;
but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, and thou, being once
converted, confirm thy brethren." Equally impressive is the triple reparation
which our Lord tenderly but almost cruelly extorted from His shamefaced disciple
beside the Sea of Galilee. "When therefore they had dined, Jesus saith to
Simon Peter, 'Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than these? 'He saith
to him:, ‘Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.' He saith to him: 'Feed
my lambs.' He saith to him again: 'Simon, son of John, lovest thou me?' He
saith to Him:, ‘Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.' He saith to him:
'Feed my lambs.' He said to him the third time: 'Simon, son of John, lovest
thou me? 'Peter was grieved, because He had said to him the third time: lovest
thou me? And he said to Him: 'Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest
that I love thee.' He said to him: 'Feed my sheep'." But the prophecy which
follows is almost more wonderful; for Jesus went on: "Amen, amen, I say to
thee, when thou wast younger thou didst gird thyself and didst walk where
thou wouldst. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands,
and another shall gird thee and lead thee whither thou wouldst not." "And
this," adds the evangelist, "He said, signifying by what death he should
glorify God."
After the Ascension we find St Peter still everywhere taking
a leading part. It is he who is named first in the group of apostles who,
in the upper room, "persevered with one mind in prayer with the women and
Mary the mother of Jesus", until the coming of the Holy Ghost on the day of
the Pentecost. It was he, also, who took the initiative in the choosing of
a new apostle in the place of Judas, and he who first addressed the jeering
crowd, bearing testimony to “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among
you, by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by Him in the midst of
you, whom God raised again, whereof all we are witnesses". Further, we are
told: "Now when they had heard these things, they had compunction in their
heart, and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles:, ‘What shall we
do, men and brethren?' Peter said to them: 'Repent, and be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.''' Whereupon “they that received his
word were baptized; and there were added in that day about three thousand
souls". It is Peter, too, who is recorded to have done the first miracle of
healing known in the Christian Church. A man lame from his birth was lying
at the gate of the Temple when Peter and John went up to pray, and he asked
them for an alms. "Peter with John fastening his eyes upon him said: 'Look
upon us.' But he looked earnestly upon them, hoping that he should receive
something of them. But Peter said: 'Silver and gold I have none, but what
I have, I give thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk.'
And taking him by the right hand, he lifted him up, and forthwith his feet
and soles received strength. And he leaping up, stood and walked, and went
with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God."
When the outbreak of persecution began which culminated in
the martyrdom of St Stephen in the presence of Saul, the future apostle
of the Gentiles, the new converts to Christ's teaching, for the most part,
scattered, but the Apostles stood their ground in Jerusalem until news came
of the favourable reception accorded in Samaria to the preaching of St Philip
the Deacon. Then St Peter and St John betook themselves to the field of these
labours and imposed hands upon (gave confirmation to?) those whom St Philip
had already baptized. Among these last was a man, best known to us as Simon
Magus, who claimed to possess occult powers and had acquired great influence
by his sorceries. Being apparently impressed by what he witnessed in those
who had been newly confirmed, he came to the Apostles, saying, "Give me also
this power, that on whomsoever I shall lay my hands, he may receive the Holy
Ghost." But, offering them money, he only met with a stern rebuke; for Peter
said, "Keep thy money to thyself, to perish with thee, because thou hast
thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money."
In the apocryphal literature known as the “Clementines", Simon
is represented as meeting St Peter at a later date and carrying on a long
contest with him and St Clement as they journey from one to another of the
maritime Cities of Syria on the way to Rome. Earlier still than the Clementines,
St Justin Martyr (writing in the year 152) declares that Simon Magus came
to Rome and was there honoured as a deity, but it must be admitted that the
evidence Justin quotes for this is quite unsatisfactory. Again, in the apocryphal
“Acts of St Peter", there is a dramatic story of the Magus's attempt to gain
over the Emperor Nero by a demonstration of his occult power in flying through
the air. According to this legend, SS. Peter and Paul were present and by
their prayers rendered the sorcerer's magic ineffective. He fell to the ground
and died soon afterwards of his injuries. Other, and quite contradictory stories,
are repeated by Hippolytus (in the Philosophumena) and by other early writers,
always turning upon some sort of conflict between Simon and the two great
apostles, with Rome as the background of the drama. Unconvincing as the evidence
is, there is a general disposition among early Christian writers, such, for
instance, as St Irenaeus, to regard Simon Magus as "the father of heresies",
and as in some special way the antagonist of SS. Peter and Paul, the representatives
of Christian truth in the capital of the world.
Almost all that we know for certain about the later life of
St Peter is derived from the Acts of the Apostles and from slight allusions
in his own epistles and those of St Paul. Of special importance is the account
of the conversion of the centurion Cornelius; for this raised the question
of the continuance of the rite of circumcision and the maintenance of the
prescriptions of the Jewish law in such matters as food and intercourse with
the Gentiles. Instructed by a special vision, St Peter, albeit with some hesitancy,
came to see that the old dispensation was at an end, and that the Church
founded by Christ was to be the Church of the Gentiles as well as of the
Jews. He was reproached somewhat later by St Paul, as we learn from the Epistle
to the Galatians (ch. ii), with being an opportunist and only halfhearted
in acting up to these principles. The incident seems to have been connected
with a gathering of certain of the apostles and elders, which has been called
the Council of Jerusalem, but whether this preceded or followed St Paul's
rebuke to St Peter at Antioch is not quite certain. In any case, it was
St Peter's address which guided the decision at which the Jerusalem assembly
arrived. The resolution come to was that the Gentile converts to Christianity
need not be circumcised or required to observe the law of Moses. On the other
hand, to avoid too grievous a shock to Jewish susceptibilities, they were
to abstain from blood and from things strangled, as well as from fornication
and from idol-offerings. This decision was communicated to Antioch and served
to calm the troubled feelings of the fastgrowing Christian community in that
great city.
It is possible, though we have no really reliable evidence
upon the point, that before the Jerusalem council (A.D. 49?) St Peter had
already, for two years or more, been bishop of Antioch, and that he may even
have made his way to Rome, thus taking possession of what was to be his permanent
see. A striking incident recorded in the Acts is the violent outbreak of persecution
under Herod Agrippa I, probably in the year 43. We are told that Herod “slew
James the brother of John with the sword"-this, of course, was the elder
James, the apostle whose feast is kept on July 25-and that then he proceeded
to arrest Peter also. However, “prayer was earnestly being offered to God
by the Church in his behalf", and Peter, though "he was sleeping between two
soldiers bound with two chains, and sentries outside the door were guarding
the prison", was released by an angel and was able to make his way to a safe
refuge. After that we are only told that “he departed and went to another
place", by which might be meant Antioch, or even Rome. From this point Peter
is mentioned no more in the Acts except in connection with the council at
Jerusalem as described above.
The passion of St Peter took place in Rome during the reign
of Nero (A.D. 54-68), but no written account of it (if there was such a thing)
has survived. According to an old but unverifiable tradition he was confined
in the Mamertine prison, where the church of San Pietro in Carcere now stands.
Tertullian (d. c. 225) says that the apostle was crucified; and Eusebius adds,
on the authority of Origen (d. 253), that by his own desire he suffered head
downwards. The place has always been believed to be the gardens of Nero, which
saw so many scenes of terror and glory at this time. The, at one time, generally
accepted tradition that St Peter's pontificate lasted twenty-five years is
probably no more than a deduction based upon inconsistent chronological data.
The beautiful legend that St Peter, departing out of Rome at the earnest
request of his flock, met our Lord coming in, and asked Him, “Domine quo
vadis?”" (Lord, whither goest thou?), is first told by St Ambrose in his sermon
against Auxentius. Our Lord answered, "I am coming to be crucified a second
time", and St Peter at once turned back, realizing that the cross of which
the Saviour spoke was that which was destined for himself. The agreement of
this story with the thought expressed in stanzas 4 and 5 of the striking hymn,
Apostolorum passio, is, as A. S. Walpole pointed out, one among many reasons
for attributing the hymn quite definitely to St Ambrose.
This is not the place to discuss objections that have been
made from time to time against the tradition of St Peter's episcopate and
martyrdom in Rome (cf· the feast of his Chair at Rome on January 18).
It is probably true to say that no serious scholar now questions it, for
the weight of evidence from both documents and monuments is decisive. But
brief reference may be made to certain early indications of strong popular
devotion to Peter and Paul in the City. According to a view which has been
accepted by many Roman archaeologists, the bodies both of St Peter and St
Paul were in the year 258 conveyed from their respective tombs beside the
Vatican and on the Ostian Way to some hiding-place, ad catacumbas, on the
Appian Way, close to the site where the basilica of St Sebastian now stands.
Excavations in 1915-1922 were undertaken to find this hiding-place, or at
any rate some trace of it, but in this respect the investigation does not
seem to have been crowned with success. There was found, however, the basin
or hollow in the tufa, from which the now familiar name" catacomb" is derived.
The place was called ad catacumbas because its most conspicuous original
feature was a series of sepulchral chambers constructed in the tufa beside
a natural depression in the ground.
Close beside these, however, there were found the walls of
a large room, open on one side to the air, which must have been constructed
about the year 250. From its decorations and other details it was clearly
a place intended for meetings of a more or less convivial and ceremonial character.
There is good reason to suppose that it was the scene of those repasts called
agapae, the Christian love-feasts of the early centuries. What is beyond
question is that the remains of the plaster coating left here and there on
the walls are covered with graffiti (scribblings) which can be dated with
security as belonging to the second half of the third century. They seem
to have been a rather uneducated crowd who scrawled their pious sentiments
upon the plaster, but their devotion to Peter and Paul is made everywhere
manifest. Here are a specimen or two, selected from a great number, almost
all fragmentary :
"PETRO ET PAULO TOMIUS COELIUS REFRIGERIUM FECI."
Refrigerium was the treat or entertainment provided at these reunions by
some more affluent person for the benefit of his poorer fellow Christians;
so that we may translate the scribble: "I, Tomius Coelius, made a feast to
the honour of Peter and Paul."
"DALMATIUS BOTUM IS PROMISIT REFRIGERIUM." (By way of a vow Dalmatius promised
a feast for these.)
Many of the scrawls are simply invocations. Thus:
"PAULE ET PETRE PETITE PRO VICTORE." (Paul and Peter, make intercession
for Victor.)
"PETRUS ET PAULUS IN MENTE ABEATIS ANTONIUS BASSUM." (Peter and Paul, do
not forget Antonius Bassus.)
These spontaneous and often quite illiterate appeals point
clearly to a great popular cultus of SS. Peter and Paul at this spot.
Most are written in Latin, a few in Greek, but the Latin is often scrawled
in Greek letters. As already noticed, the plaster only remains in patches,
and many of the scribblings are illegible, but in the case of nearly eighty
the names of both apostles can be discerned, sometimes that of Peter standing
first, sometimes that of Paul. There can be no possible question that somewhere
during the latter half of the third century, and consequently in close accord
with an entry in the Philocalian calendar of 354 which commemorates a translation,
or at any rate a festival celebration, of the two apostles ad catacumbas in
258, there existed precisely in that spot a vigorous popular devotion to
the two great Roman patrons conjointly, the evidence of which remains to
this day.
Already, at the beginning of the third century, Caius, as quoted
by Eusebius, records that the scene of the triumph of St Peter was to be
found on the Vatican hill, whereas the martyrdom of St Paul was honoured
on the Ostian Way. Father Delehaye and some other distinguished hagiographical
experts hold that the bodies of the two apostles were interred there from
the beginning and have never since been disturbed; others suggest that they
were temporarily buried at the Appian Way site immediately after their deaths,
until permanent tombs near the scene of their respective martyrdoms could
be prepared. In either case the inscription set up by Pope St Damasus I
(d. 384) at the place near St Sebastian's would then merely commemorate the
institution of a festival in 258 which, for convenience or some other reason,
was celebrated ad catacumbas.
Since the above was written the results of the excavations,
begun under St. Peter's basilica in 1938, have been made public. The site
and fragmentary remains of the Apostle's tomb there seem to have been established
and identified beyond reasonable doubt; but whether the human remains found
in close proximity are those of St Peter can at present, and perhaps for ever,
be only a matter of surmise. This discovery on the Vatican hill revives interest
in the San Sebastiano site; but the theory that, after a translation
ad catacumbas in 258, the bones
of St Peter remained there permanently is for several reasons a most unlikely
one.
The joint feast of SS. Peter and Paul seems always to have
been kept at Rome on June 29, and Duchesne considers that the practice goes
back at least to the time of Constantine; but the celebration in the East
was at first commonly assigned to December 28. This was the case at Oxyrhynchus
in Egypt, as surviving papyri attest, as late as the year 536, but in Constantinople
and elsewhere in the Eastern empire the Roman date for the commemoration gradually
won acceptance. The joint feast was kept in Syria in the early fifth century,
as we learn from the Syriac breviarium of that period, which has an entry
in this form: "December 28, in the City of Rome, Paul the Apostle, and Simon
Kephas (i.e. Peter), the chief of the Apostles of the Lord."
There is, of course, an enormous
literature connected with St Peter, which deals with his life and office from
every point of view. The commentators on the gospels and on the Acts of the
Apostles cover a large part of the ground with which such a work as the present
is specially concerned. The little volume S. Pierre (in the series “Les Saints"),
by L. C. Fillion, forms an excellent introduction to the subject, as it includes
the whole range of what is recorded of the apostle; that of C. Fouard, St Peter (Eng. trans.), is more detailed,
but it is mainly concerned with the early years of the Christian Church, leaving
aside what we are told of St Peter in the gospels. To these may be added
R. Aigrain's St Pierre (1938) and
a popular American work by W. T. Walsh, St Peter the Apostle (1950). For St Peter's
teaching, G. Thils, L'enseignement
de St Pierre (1946) may be
consulted, and on the early primacy Bishop Besson's St Pierre et les origines de la primauté
Romaine (1929) is excellent.
Among other non-Catholic scholars, see Bishop Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers (1877), W. Ramsay,
The Church and the Roman Empire
(1893), O. Cullmann, Peter: Disciple, Apostle,
Martyr (1954), and H. Lietzmann, Petrus und Paulus in Rom (1927) and Petrus
Römischer Martyrer (1936)
on St Peter in Rome. For a discussion of the catacomb problem, see F. Toletti's
article in Rivista di archeologia cristiana,
1947-1948; Mgr A. S. Barnes, The Martyrdom
of St Peter and St Paul (1933), on which cf. Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lii (1934),
pp. 69-72; and P. Styger, Die römischen
Katacumben (1933). Cf. also the Liber
Pontificalis (ed. Duchesne), vol. i, and Delehaye, Origines du culte des martyrs (1933),
pp. 263-269. The report of the 1938-1950 excavations has been published in
2 vols., one of text and one of illustrations; see an article by P. Romanelli
in the Osservatore Romano, December
19, 1951. Numerous other articles in various languages on the results of the
excavations appeared, among them two by J. B. Ward Perkins, in The Listener, 25 Sept. 1952, and in the
Journal of Roman Studies, vol.
xlii (1952).
St. Peter, the fervent follower of Jesus Christ, for the profound confession
of His Divinity: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God," was deemed
worthy by the Savior to hear in answer, "Blessed art thou, Simon ... I tell
thee, that thou art Peter [Petrus], and on this stone [petra] I build My Church"
(Mt.16:16-18). On "this stone" [petra], is on that which thou sayest: "Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the Living God" it is on this thy confession I
build My Church. Wherefore the "thou art Peter": it is from the "stone" [petra]
that Peter [Petrus] is, and not from Peter [Petrus] that the "stone" [petra]
is, just as the Christian is from Christ, and not Christ from the Christian.
Do you want to know, from what sort of "rock" [petra] the Apostle Peter [Petrus]
was named? Hear the Apostle Paul: "Brethren, I do not want ye to be ignorant,"
says the Apostle of Christ, "how all our fathers were all under the cloud,
and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud
and in the sea; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank
of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ" (1 Cor.10:
1-4). Here is the from whence the "Rock" is Peter.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the
final days of His earthly life, in the days of His mission to the race of
man, chose from among the disciples His twelve Apostles to preach the Word
of God. Among them, the Apostle Peter for his fiery ardor was vouchsafed to
occupy the first place (Mt.10:2) and to be as it were the representative person
for all the Church. Therefore it is said to him, preferentially, after the
confession: "I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and
whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in the heaven: and whatsoever
thou shalt loose on earth: shall be loosed in heaven" (Mt.16: 19). Therefore
it was not one man, but rather the One Universal Church, that received these
"keys" and the right "to bind and loosen." And that it was actually the Church
that received this right, and not exclusively a single person, turn your
attention to another place of the Scriptures, where the same Lord says to
all His Apostles, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit" and further after this, "Whose
soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them: and whose soever sins
ye retain, are retained" (John 20: 22-23); or: "whatsoever ye bind upon the
earth, shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth,
shall be loosened in heaven" (Mt.18:18). Thus, it is the Church that binds,
the Church that loosens; the Church, built upon the foundational cornerstone,
Jesus Christ Himself (Eph 2:20), doth bind and loosen. Let both the binding
and the loosening be feared: the loosening, in order not to fall under this
again; the binding, in order not to remain forever in this condition. Therefore
"Iniquities ensnare a man, and everyone is bound in the chains of his own
sins," says Wisdom (Prov 5:22); and except for Holy Church nowhere is it
possible to receive the loosening.
After His Resurrection the Lord entrusted the Apostle Peter
to shepherd His spiritual flock not because, that among the disciples only
Peter alone was pre-deserved to shepherd the flock of Christ, but Christ
addresses Himself chiefly to Peter because, that Peter was first among the
Apostles and as such the representative of the Church; besides which, having
turned in this instance to Peter alone, as to the top Apostle, Christ by
this confirms the unity of the Church. "Simon of John" -- says the Lord to
Peter -- "lovest thou Me?" -- and the Apostle answered: "Yea, Lord, Thou
knowest that I love Thee"; and a second time it was thus asked, and a second
time he thus answered; being asked a third time, seeing that as it were not
believed, he was saddened. But how is it possible for him not to believe
That One, Who knew his heart? And wherefore then Peter answered: "Lord,
Thou knowest all; Thou knowest that I love Thee." "And sayeth Jesus to him"
all three times "Feed My sheep" (John 20:15-17).
Besides this, the triple appealing
of the Savior to Peter and the triple confession of Peter before the Lord
had a particular beneficial purpose for the Apostle. That one, to whom was
given "the keys of the kingdom" and the right "to bind and to loose," bound
himself thrice by fear and cowardice (Mt.26:69-75), and the Lord thrice loosens
him by His appeal and in turn by his confession of strong love. And to shepherd
literally the flock of Christ was acquired by all the Apostles and their successors.
"Take heed, therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock," the Apostle
Paul urges church presbyters, "over which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers,
to feed the Church of the God, which He hath purchased with His own blood"
(Acts 20:28); and the Apostle Peter to the elders: "Feed the flock of God
which is among you, taking the oversight thereof not by constraint, but willingly:
not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind: neither as being lords over God's
heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when is appeared the Prince
of pastors, ye will receive unfading crowns of glory" (1 Pet. 5:2-4).
It is remarkable that Christ, having said to Peter: "Feed My
sheep," did not say: "Feed thy sheep," but rather to feed, good servant,
the sheep of the Lord. "Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or
were ye baptized in the name of Paul?" (1 Cor.1:13). "Feed My sheep". Wherefore
"wolfish robbers, wolfish oppressors, deceitful teachers and mercenaries,
not being concerned about the flock" (Mt.7:15; Acts 20:29; 2 Pet 2:1; John
10:12), having plundered a strange flock and making of the spoils as though
it be of their own particular gain, they think that they feed their flock.
Such are not good pastors, as pastors of the Lord. "The good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep" (John 10:11), entrusted to Him by the chief Shepherd
Himself (1 Pet 5:4). And the Apostle Peter, true to his calling, gave his
soul for the very flock of Christ, having sealed his apostleship by a martyr's
death, is now glorified throughout all the world.
The Apostle Paul, formerly Saul, was changed from a robbing
wolf into a meek lamb. Formerly he was an enemy of the Church, then is manifest
as an Apostle. Formerly he stalked it, then preached it. Having received
from the high priests the authority at large to throw all Christians in chains
for execution, he was already on the way, he breathed out "threatenings and
slaughter against the disciples of the Lord" (Acts 9:1), he thirsted for blood,
but "He that dwells in the Heavens shall laugh him to scorn" (Ps 2:4). When
he, "having persecuted and vexed" in such manner "the Church of God" (1Cor.15:9;
Acts 8:5), he came near Damascus, and the Lord from Heaven called to him:
"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" and I am here, and I am there, I am
everywhere: here is My head; there is My body. There becomes nothing of a
surprise in this; we ourselves are members of the Body of Christ. "Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou Me; it is hard for thee to kick against the goad" (Acts
9:4-5). Saul, however, "trembling and frightened", cried out: "Who art Thou,
Lord?" The Lord answered him, "I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest."
And Saul suddenly undergoes a change: "What wantest Thou
me to do?" -- he cries out. And suddenly for him there is the Voice: "Arise,
and go to the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do" (Acts 9:6).
Here the Lord sends Ananias: "Arise and go into the street" to a man, "by
the name of Saul," and baptize him, "for this one is a chosen vessel unto
Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of
Israel" (Acts 9: 11, 15, 18). This vessel must be filled with My Grace. "Ananias,
however, answered: Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil
he hath done to Thy saints in Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from
the chief priests to bind all who call on Thy Name" (Acts 9:13-14). But the
Lord urgently commands Ananias: "Search for and fetch him, for this vessel
is chosen by Me: for I shall show him what great things he must suffer for
My name's sake" (Acts 9:11, 15-16).
And actually the Lord
did show the Apostle Paul what things he had to suffer for His Name. He instructed
him the deeds; He did not stop at the chains, the fetters, the prisons and
shipwrecks; He Himself felt for him in his sufferings, He Himself guided him
towards this day. On a single day the memory of the sufferings of both these
Apostles is celebrated, though they suffered on separate days, but by the
spirit and the closeness of their suffering they constitute one. Peter went
first, and Paul followed soon after him. Formerly called Saul, and then Paul,
having transformed his pride into humility. His very name (Paulus), meaning
"small, little, less," demonstrates this. What is the Apostle Paul after
this? Ask him, and he himself gives answer to this: "I am," says he, "the
least of the Apostles... but I have labored more abundantly than all of them:
yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me" (1 Cor.15:9-10).
And so, brethren, celebrating
now the memory of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, remembering their venerable
sufferings, we esteem their true faith and holy life, we esteem the innocence
of their sufferings and pure confession. Loving in them the sublime quality
and imitating them by great exploits, "in which to be likened to them" (2
Thess 3: 5-9), and we shall attain to that eternal bliss which is prepared
for all the saints. The path of our life before was more grievous, thornier,
harder, but "we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses"
(Heb 12: 1), having passed by along it, made now for us easier, and lighter,
and more readily passable. First there passed along it "the author and finisher
of our faith," our Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Heb 12: 2); His daring Apostles
followed after Him; then the martyrs, children, women, virgins and a great
multitude of witnesses. Who acted in them and helped them on this path? He
Who said, "Without Me ye can do nothing" (John 15: 5).
The
hymns for their Feast speak of Sts Peter and Paul as leaders (koryphaioi),
and chiefs of the Apostles.
They are, without a doubt, the foremost in the ranks of
the Apostles.
The koryphaioi were leaders of
the chorus in ancient Greek tragedy. They set the pattern for the singing,
and also for the dance movements and gestures of the chorus. Before Sophocles,
there were twelve members of the chorus, and Sts Peter and Paul were the leaders
of the twelve Apostles.
Both St Peter and St Paul received new names, indicating a new
relationship with God. Simon the fisherman became known as Cephas (John
1:42), or Peter after confessing Jesus as the Son of God (Mt.16:18).
St Peter, the brother of St Andrew, was a fisherman on the sea
of Galilee. He was married, and Christ healed his mother-in-law of a fever
(Mt.8:14). He, with James and John, witnessed the most important miracles
of the Savior's earthly life.
Despite his earlier recognition of Christ as the Son of God,
he denied Him three times on the night before the Crucifixion. Therefore,
after His Resurrection, the Lord asked Peter three times if he loved Him.
Then He told Peter to feed His sheep (John 21:15-17).
After the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, St Peter
addressed the crowd (Acts 2:14), and performed many miracles in Christ's
name. He baptized Cornelius, the first Gentile convert (Acts 10:48). He was
cast into prison, but escaped with the help of an angel (Acts 5:19). St Peter
also traveled to many places in order to proclaim the Gospel message. He
wrote two Epistles, which are part of the New Testament.
Sts Peter was put to death in Rome during the reign of Nero.
According to Tradition, he asked to be crucified upside down, since he did
not feel worthy to die in the same manner as his Lord.
June 29, 2010 Sts. Peter and Paul (d. 64 & 67)
Peter: 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 Gethsemane. 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.
A nd so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of the nether world 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 public relations person. 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 beings 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.
Paul: 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 centr al 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 reparation 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.
In light of his preaching and teaching skills, Paul's name has surfaced
(among others) as a possible patron of the Internet.
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."
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 further transformation.
The dying Christ was in him; the living Christ was his life.
|
67 Saint Paul Saint Paul, the
indefatigable Apostle of the Gentiles convert from Judaism on the road to
Damascus. Ephesus he remained 3 yrs, the center of his missionary
activity
ST PAUL, APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES (A.D. 67?)
OF all the saints with whom we are made acquainted through the pages of
Holy Writ, St Paul is the most intimately known to us. We possess not merely
an exact external record of his doings, furnished by his disciple, St Luke,
in the Acts of the Apostles, but we have his own incomparable self-revelation
in his letters which, while prompted always by no other purpose than to benefit
those to whom he writes, lay bare his very soul.· [There
is also some evidence about his physical appearance (cf. 2 Corinthians x,
10). A second-century document, the so-called Acts of Paul and Thecla, says
that he was “a man small in size, bald-headed, bandy-legged, well built, with
eyebrows meeting, rather longnosed, full of grace. For sometimes he seemed
like a man, and sometimes he had the countenance of an angel."]
It would be difficult, without transcribing a great part
of the New Testament, to draw a faithful picture of the character of the Apostle
of the Gentiles; and the New Testament, it may be assumed, is in the hands
of all. In the first volume of this series, under January 25, St Paul's conversion
has been narrated. In the present notice it has seemed best to leave on one
side the thirty-two pages which Butler devoted to an account of the apostle's
missionary journeys and his writings, and to give a brief summary of what
St Luke records in the last fifteen chapters of the Acts.
When Saul, on his way to Damascus, had been stricken down and converted
from a prosecutor into the eager servant of Christ, he withdrew, on recovering
from his temporary blindness, to spend three years of seclusion in "Arabia".
Then, returning to Damascus, he began to preach the gospel with fervour. But
fury against his teaching was such that he had to make his escape, being let
down the city wall in a basket. He directed his steps to Jerusalem, and there,
perhaps not unnaturally, he was at first regarded by the Apostles and their
converts with considerable suspicion, until the generous support of Barnabas
allayed their fears. In Jerusalem, however, he could not stay-the resentment
of the Jews against him was too strong-and being warned by a vision which
came to him in the temple, Saul went back for a time to his native city of
Tarsus. Thither Barnabas went to seek him, and yielding to his persuasion
Saul accompanied him to Antioch in Syria, where the two preached with such
success that a great community of believers was founded who, in that city
for the first time, began to be known as “Christians ".
After a twelve-months' stay Saul, in 44, paid his second visit to Jerusalem,
coming with his companion to bring contributions to the brethren who were
suffering from famine. By this time all doubts concerning Saul's stability
had been laid at rest. By the direction of the Holy Spirit he and Barnabas,
after their return to Antioch, were ordained, and forthwith set out on a missionary
journey, first to Cyprus and then to Asia Minor. In Cyprus they converted
the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, and exposed the false prophet Elymas, by whom
he had been duped. Thence crossing to Perga, they made their way through
the Taurus mountains to Antioch of Pisidia, and went on to preach in Iconium
and then in Lystra, where, healing a cripple, they were at first taken for
gods-Barnabas was Jupiter and Paul Mercury, "because he was the chief speaker";
but enemies among the Jews provoked a revulsion of feeling, Paul, as he now
begins to be called by his Gentile name, was stoned and left for dead. They
escaped, however, and fled secretly to Derbe, whence in time they pursued
their journey to the more peaceful atmosphere of the Syrian Antioch. Two
or three years had probably been spent in this first missionary expedition,
and it seems to have been in the summer of 49 that Paul came to Jerusalem
for the third time, and was present at the meeting in which the question
of the attitude of the Christian Church towards Gentile converts was finally
decided. The incident in which Paul, as recorded in the second chapter of
the Epistle to the Galatians, remonstrated with St Peter at Antioch over
his too conservative Judaism, had perhaps occurred in the preceding winter.
Then the years from 49 to 52 were spent by St Paul in his second great
missionary journey. Taking Silas with him, he travelled through Derbe to
Lystra, regardless of what had previously befallen him in that place, but
he was rewarded by the faithful discipleship of Timothy, whose parents dwelt
there, Paul, on his part, being seemingly more careful to avoid giving unnecessary
offence to the Jews; for he had Timothy circumcised, as his mother was a
Jewess, though his father was a Greek. Accompanied by both Timothy and Silas,
St Paul went through Phrygia and Galatia preaching and founding churches.
He was, however, prevented from proceeding farther in a northerly direction
by a vision which summoned him to Macedonia. Accordingly he crossed over from
Troas; the beloved physician, St Luke, the author of a Gospel and the Acts,
being now apparently of the party. At Philippi we have the very interesting
episode of the girl with the divining spirit who called after them, "These
men are the servants of the most high God". But though this might have seemed
to help the cause, Paul commanded the spirit to go out of her. This put an
end to the girl's powers of divining, and her masters, deprived of a source
of profit, raised a clamour and brought Paul and Silas before the magistrates.
The two missionaries were beaten and thrown into prison, but were miraculously
set at liberty. We need not trace the further stages of this journey. The
missionaries made their way through Macedonia, Beroea and Athens to Corinth.
At Athens we have an account of the address delivered by St Paul on the Areopagus,
in which he took occasion to comment upon their altar dedicated "to the unknown
god". In Corinth his preaching made a deeper impression and we are told that
he settled there for a year and six months. In the year 52 St Paul seems to
have left Corinth to come to Jerusalem-his fourth visit possibly to be present
there for Pentecost, but he remained for only a short time and went on to
Antioch.
The third missionary journey is thought to have covered the years 52 to
56.
St Paul traversed Galatia, the Roman province of "Asia", Macedonia, Achaia,
crossed back to Macedonia, and made a return by sea which allowed him to pay
his fifth visit to Jerusalem. During this period he probably spent three winters
at Ephesus, and it was at Ephesus that occurred the great disturbance raised
by Demetrius the silversmith, when Paul's preaching interfered with the profitable
trade which many of the townspeople carried on in making and selling images
of Diana. Then at Jerusalem we have the story told in detail of the apostle's
reception by the elders and of the intense popular commotion excited by his
visit to the Temple. He was arrested, roughly handled, and bound with chains,
but before the tribune he defended himself with vigour. The official inquiry
ended by his being conveyed to Caesarea, for a plot was discovered in which
forty Jews had bound themselves under a curse "that they would neither eat
not drink until they should kill Paul". At Caesarea he was kept in captivity
for two years, under the proconsuls Felix and Festus, while the uncertain
trial dragged on, for the governors, though all evidence of any real offence
was lacking, were unwilling to face the unpopularity and the danger of an
outbreak which might occur if they delivered a verdict in his favour. Paul
meanwhile “appealed to Caesar"; in other words, demanded, as a Roman citizen,
that the cause should be heard by the emperor himself. In charge of a centurion,
Julius, the prisoner was sent to Myra and then conveyed in an Alexandrian
wheat-ship to Crete. The vessel, however, was caught in a hurricane and suffered
shipwreck at Malta. St Paul, after some delay, was transferred to another
ship, brought to Puteoli, and thence by land to Rome. There the book of the
Acts of the Apostles leaves him, awaiting his trial before Nero.
The later movements and history of the great apostle are very uncertain.
It seems probable that he was tried and acquitted in Rome after a lengthy
imprisonment. We have evidence of yet another, a fourth, missionary journey.
It is held by some that he visited Spain, but we can affirm with greater confidence
that he found his way to Macedonia once more and probably spent the winter-of
65-66 at Nicopolis. Returning to Rome he was again arrested and imprisoned.
Whether he was condemned in company with St Peter is not certain, but as
a Roman citizen his punishment was different. There is a strong and seemingly
reliable tradition that he was beheaded on the Ostian Way, at a place called
Aquae Salviae (now Tre Fontane), near where the basilica of St Paul Outside
the Walls stands to-day; and in that church his burial-place is venerated.
It is commonly said that St Paul suffered on the same day of the same year
as did St Peter, but there is no certainty about this. Shortly before, he
had written to St Timothy those famous words: "I am even now ready to be
sacrificed, and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought a good
fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith. As for the rest,
there is laid up for me a crown of justice which the Lord, the just judge,
will render to me in that day: and not only to me, but to them also that
love His coming."
In the case of St Paul again there
is a vast literature, which it would be useless to attempt to recapitulate
here. As a particularly valuable guide to the many problems involved in the
apostle's work and writings, the little volume, St Paul, by Fr F. Prat, who has made this
study his life-work, may be particularly recommended. It is published in
the series “Les Saints". The St Paul
of Fouard (Eng. trans.) is also well known, and the apostle's history is therein
discussed in great detail. Much help may be obtained from the commentaries
on the Epistles by the Anglican Bishop Lightfoot, and from the books of his
friend, the archaeological explorer, Sir W. M. Ramsay, notably St Paul the Traveller (1908) and The Church
in the Roman Empire (1893). All the fuller commentaries on the Acts of the
Apostles necessarily deal with St Paul's history; see, for example, E. Jacquier,
Les Actes des Apôtres
(1926), and Camerlynck and Van der Heeren, Commentarius in Actus Apostolorum (1923). Other useful
books are: K. Pieper, Paulus, seine missionärische
Persönlichkeit ...
(1926); P. Delattre, Les Épitres
de S. Paul (1924-1926); Tricot, St Paul (1928); and the indispensable
Theology of St Paul of Fr Prat
(Eng. trans., 2 vols., 1927-1934). Some more recent publications are English
translations of Mgr J. Holzner's Paul of
Tarsus (1944) and I. Giordani's St Paul, Apostle and Martyr (1946), a
popular work; a long biography in Italian by D. A. Penna, San Paulo (1946); E. B. Allo, Paul, Apôtre de Jésus-Christ (1946)
; and R. Sencourt's study, St Paul: Envoy
of Grace (1948). There are many apocryphal writings in which St Paul
plays a prominent part, including letters purporting to have been written
by him. The Acts of St Paul have been edited by W. Schubart and C. Schmidt,
from a papyrus manuscript at Hamburg. The Acts of Paul and Thecla have been
more than once printed: see September 23 herein, under St Thecla, and O.
von Gebhardt, in Texte und Untersuchungen,
vol. vii, part II (1902); consult also L. Vouaux, Les Actes de Paul et ses Lettres apocryphes
(1913). On the burial-place of the apostle in the confessio at St Paul's Outside
the Walls, see Grisar, Analecta Romana,
pp. 259 seq.
No one perhaps has written of
St Paul with truer intuition than Cardinal Newman,
who was specially fitted to appreciate the secret of the apostle's
appeal, his gift of Christian sympathy.
He remained some days in Damascus after his Baptism, and then
went to Arabia, possibly for a year or two to prepare himself for his future
missionary activity.
Having returned to Damascus, he stayed there for a time, preaching
in the synagogues that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. For this he incurred
the hatred of the Jews and had to flee from the city.
He then went to Jerusalem to see Peter and pay his homage to the head of
the Church.
Later he went back to his native Tarsus, where he began to evangelize
his own province until called by Barnabus
to Antioch. After one year, on the occasion of a famine, both
Barnabus and Paul were sent with alms to the poor Christian community at Jerusalem.
Having fulfilled their mission they returned to Antioch.
Soon after this, Paul and
Barnabus made the first missionary journey, visiting
the island of Cypress, then
Pamphylia, Pisidia, and Lycaonia, all in Asia Minor, and establishing churches
at Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe.
After the Apostolic
Council of Jerusalem Paul, accompanied by Silas and later also by Timothy and Luke, made his second missionary journey, first
revisiting the churches previously established by him in Asia Minor, and then
passing through Galatia. At Troas a vision of a Macedonian was had
by Paul, which impressed him as a call from God to evangelize in Macedonia.
He accordingly sailed for Europe, and preached the Gospel in Philippi. Thessalonica,
Beroea, Athens, and Corinth. Then he returned to Antioch by way of Ephesus
and Jerusalem.
On his third missionary
journey, Paul visited nearly the same regions as on the second trip, but
made Ephesus where he remained
nearly three years, the center
of his missionary activity. He laid plans also for another missionary journey,
intending to leave Jerusalem for Rome and Spain. Persecutions by the Jews
hindered him from accomplishing his purpose. After two years of imprisonment
at Caesarea he finally reached Rome, where he was kept another two years
in chains.
The Acts of the Apostles gives us no further information on
the life of the Apostle. We gather, however, from the Pastoral Epistles and
from tradition that at the end of the two years Saint Paul was released
from his Roman imprisonment, and then traveled to Spain, later to the East
again, and then back to Rome, where he was imprisoned a second time and in
the year 67, was beheaded.
Saint Paul untiring interest in and paternal affection for the
churches established by him have given us fourteen canonical Epistles. It
is, however, quite certain that he wrote other letters which are no longer
extant. In his Epistles, Saint Paul shows himself to be a profound religious
thinker and he has had an enduring formative influence in the development
of Christianity. The centuries only make more apparent his greatness of mind
and spirit. |
Mary Mother of GOD
Saint of Day June 29 Tértio Kaléndas Júlii 
Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969
Benedict XVI met with Aram
I Catholicos of Cilicia, the highest authority of the Orthodox
Church. The Pope remembered the martyrs
of the Armenian Church and the Armenian genocide, without explicitly
mentioning it, and denounced the persecution of Christians in
modern times. Benedict XVI
As we watch the spectacle
of the world seeming to self-destruct before our eyes,
we can’t help but be saddened and even frightened by so much
evil run rampant. Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Somalia, North Korea—It
is all a disaster of epic proportions displayed in living color
on our television screens. 
