Sunday the 28th of June 2026 - Saints Peter and Paul (Transferred)

Acts 12:1-11/ Ps 34(33)/2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18/ Matthew 16:13-19

Consider a parish council meeting where two members just cannot see eye to eye. One is practical, plain-spoken and has been around the parish for many years, knows everyone, but is not one for theology. The other is a sharp, university-educated newcomer who can quote scripture and church documents chapter and verse. They clash, disagree, sometimes openly, in front of everyone. You might expect one of them to storm off and start their own group, and the parish to split into two camps. This was the situation the Church found itself in only a short time after Jesus founded it. Peter the fisherman and Paul the scholar where as different as could be. Saint Paul tells us himself that he once disagreed with Peter to his face. Despite their differing views they did not split and form rival factions. They prayed, they talked, they listened, and they stayed united. Today the Church honours them on the same day, because the same Holy Spirit worked through these very different but flawed men. They became the great pillars of our faith, Saints Peter and Paul, two very different people, yet whose blood, shed in Rome, enriched the soil from which the universal Church has grown.

Peter, a simple fisherman from Galilee, often slow to understand what Jesus was saying. Paul, a scholar, trained at the school of Gamaliel, fluent in the Scriptures and Greek philosophy. Peter walked with Jesus for three years. Paul never met the earthly Jesus. Peter, sent first to the Jews. Paul became the apostle to the Gentiles. The striking thing about these two men is not their greatness but their flaws. Peter, the Rock, who denied even knowing Jesus three times on the night Jesus needed him the most. Paul, the great evangelist, had stood in the crowd holding the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen, the first martyr, to death. He hunted down Christians, dragged them from their homes, and threw them into prison. These are not the actions we might expect of two of the greatest saints of the Church, but this is the point. Both these very human people preached the Gospel without fear and eventually died for it. Before they could die for the truth, they first had to be transformed by it. Peter had to weep bitterly after his denial, Paul had to be knocked to the ground on the road to Damascus, blinded by a light brighter than the sun.

The phrase, 'a road to Damascus experience,' has entered our everyday language. We use it to describe a sudden, radical, life-changing moment of conversion. Consider what Jesus said to Paul from heaven. He did not ask why Paul was persecuting His followers? He asked why was he persecuting Him? When the Church suffers, Christ suffers. When His members are wounded, He Himself is wounded. This should cause us to reflect on how we treat each other. Peter did not continue in his denial, and Paul did not continue his persecution. Both men allowed the Holy Spirit to take their broken humanity and forge it into something wonderful. In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Peter is delivered from Herod's prison by an angel because his mission was not yet complete. He still had to journey to Rome, to plant the seed of the Church in the heart of the empire. In the second reading, Paul, now at the end of his life, can say with confidence, that he had competed well, finished the race, kept the faith. He acknowledged that he was not perfect, but he had remained faithful and the Lord had stood by him giving him the strength he needed. One of the important messages of the readings today is that the Holy Spirit does not wait for us to become perfect before working through us. He takes us as we are, with all our denials and all our wounds, and He transforms us into instruments of grace.

In the Gospel today we hear when Jesus asked His apostles who they say Jesus is. Peter, inspired by the Father, makes his great confession: 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Jesus responded by giving Simon a new name, Peter, the Rock, and entrusting to him the keys of the Kingdom, giving him an extraordinary power. Telling Peter that whatever he binds on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever he may loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. This is not just an extraordinary gift, the Church on earth needs to be governed if it is to survive and remain faithful through the ages. Jesus established a single chair, a single source of unity, so that the Church would not be torn apart by every passing whim. Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Church, led by the Pope of the day, navigates the way through every fad, ideology, and cultural pressure thrown at it. The Church does not and cannot bend to the fashions of the day. The Church remains rooted in the teaching of Jesus, handed down through Peter and his successors, through the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, all guided by the same Holy Spirit who descended at Pentecost.

It can be reassuring to see that not everything ran smoothly even in the early Church. Saint Paul openly disagreed with Peter to his face. They did not split, forming rival factions. They prayed, discussed, listened, and reached an agreement that remained true to the Gospel and preserved the unity of the Church. That is the model Christ left us. It is a tragic scandal that since then so many divisions have torn the Body of Christ apart. Divisions that were not settled in the way Peter and Paul settled theirs. We must join Jesus in His own prayer at the Last Supper, ‘that they all may be one,’ and work humbly, patiently, and constantly for the unity of all Christians.

The authority Jesus gave to Peter is alive in the Church today. We see it now in Pope Leo, the successor of Peter, we see the wisdom and strength of the Holy Spirit at work in him. Even people of different faiths, or no faith at all, listen when the Pope speaks. In a world fractured by division, in a society torn by anger and suspicion, the unity that the Church offers is needed more than ever. Let us focus on what unites us rather than what divides us, seeking the peace that Jesus alone can give, peace in our hearts, our homes, our country, our world. Peace built on mutual respect, understanding, and above all on that commandment Jesus left us, to love God with all our heart, and love our neighbour as ourselves.

The Eucharist we receive at Mass is the same Eucharist that Peter celebrated in Rome, that Paul wrote about so beautifully in his letters, that has been the source and summit of the Church's life for two thousand years. In the unity the Eucharist gives let us pray today that the Holy Spirit may do in us what He did in Peter and Paul. Take our weakness and make it strength. Take our failures and make them the road to holiness. Make us living stones, built upon the Rock, in the one Church of Jesus Christ. Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

God Bless Brendan