When the 29Th of June, the Solemnity of the Saints Peter and Paul (The Patronal Feast of the Church of Rome), Falls on a Sunday, It Trumps the Sunday in Ordinary Time
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When the 29th of June, the Solemnity of the Saints Peter and Paul (the patronal feast of the Church of Rome), falls on a Sunday, it trumps the Sunday in Ordinary Time. So that is why we are celebrating it this weekend. I’d like to share a story about St. Peter that happens near the end of his life. When the persecutions by Nero against the Christians in Rome were happening, St. Peter tried to escape them by running away outside of the city. (Thus, another time we have Peter trying to deny that he knows Jesus.) When he was journeying on the principal way (road) that leads south of the city (the Via Appia), he encountered the Lord journeying toward the city. Peter recognized that it was the Lord. He asked Jesus: “Domine, quo vadis?”—“Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered Peter: I am going to be crucified again. (I am going to die another time.) And with that, Peter was convicted in his fears and he converted (repented) immediately, and followed Jesus along the way in order to give his own life as a witness (testimony) to his faith in Jesus Christ. He died the martyr’s death (a witness to the faith): “‘…and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.’ He said this signifying by what kind of death [Peter] would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.’” A church was built at the site in order to mark this event in Peter’s life. It has the name of the question that Peter asked the Lord: “Domine, quo vadis?” I like this story from the tradition about Peter very much, because it means that through his entire life, he battled (fought) against his demons of fear and denial and betrayal that marked his famous denial in the midst of the passion, suffering and death of his Lord and Master. Even at the end of his life, when he was and old man who supposedly had the wisdom that comes with years, he wanted to run…he wanted to flee…he wanted to deny. And another time, Jesus challenges (convicts) him to look again in order to embrace his calling. Perhaps on this road (way) south of Rome, when he was hearing the words of Jesus, he remembered other words of tender, sweet conviction: “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” In the language of love, Peter was rehabilitated from his first betrayal. And in the language of love, when all that he wanted to do was to flee, he was rehabilitated from another betrayal. On this solemnity of the holy apostles Peter and Paul (patrons of the city of Rome), we can look at Peter as our example. He represents us poor human beings who are weak and many times incapable of living our faith. Many times we want to flee, escape, run from our responsibilities when the time, the circumstances, are difficult or challenging. Each of us, like Peter, can turn back (revert) to our factory specifications, to how we were at first. It’s always the temptation in being human. We settle for the way of the small soul (the pusillanimous way) instead of the way of the large soul (the magnanimous way). But, in the language of love (the large soul), the Lord asks us as he asked Peter: “Do you love me?” We are convicted (we are converted) and we turn to embrace our future, our life even when this life is not what we would have chosen at first. “‘Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.’ And when he had said this, he said to him, ‘Follow me.’” It is about dying to self and living for Christ, and it brings me to the other holy apostle whom we commemorate today: St. Paul. As I go to do other things in this life, I hope you will continue to choose the way of magnanimity (the large soul), never settling for the way of pusillanimity (the small soul). St. Paul always did it big. He went big, not small. As much as he had persecuted the church, so he became its greatest preacher and proclaimer. I don’t think I have shared it here at St. Francis, but my favorite verse of scripture is from St. Paul…from his letter to the Galatians: Χριστῷ συνεσταύρωμαι· ζῶ δὲ οὐκέτι ἐγώ, ζῇ δὲ ἐν ἐμοὶ Χριστός· ὃ δὲ νῦν ζῶ ἐν σαρκί, ἐν πίστει ζῶ τῇ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀγαπήσαντός με καὶ παραδόντος ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ. “I have been crucified with Christ, yet it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). This was Paul’s great desire; this was Peter’s great desire. This is my desire. Hopefully it is everyone’s desire here. Sometimes we have the magnanimity of soul to do it; we get it. Many times we fall back into our factory specifications and live from the pusillanimity of soul; we don’t get it. But, the God of hesed (of steadfast love and loving kindness and mercy) is always there ready to ask us and say to us—when we get lost and ask him: “Lord, where are you going?”—John Robert, do you love me? Follow me. “I have been crucified with Christ, yet it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). .