The Solemnity of
Saints Peter and Paul
June 29, 2016 8:30am
I think that Saints Peter and
Paul have some helpful messages for us today.
First, Peter and Paul did not
agree with each other on everything.
The Acts of the Apostles shows
them in clear disagreement.
So, I think in our Church today,
there can be different points of view.
There can be disagreement on
certain things.
We can be one in faith and one in
the Lord without complete uniformity.
Also, Peter and Paul lived in
very challenging times.
There were outright persecutions
going on.
There were moral values very
different from those of Jesus.
So maybe their experience might
slow us down a bit if we are tempted to think that we are living in the worst
of all moral times.
Maybe their experience will keep
us from becoming alarmist and enable us to stay positive.
And that takes me to the last
lesson I see from Peter and Paul today.
Peter and Paul did not get
political.
The Roman government was not
their friend.
It was their enemy and
persecutor.
What did Peter and Paul do?
They preached the positive
message of Jesus Christ to the persons and communities they encountered.
They did not preach a negative
message against anyone, especially the government of the day.
They did not decry the government
or culture as secular or pagan.
They did not enter into cultural
or spiritual warfare.
They simply did a good job
preaching positively to persons and communities.
And their efforts bore lasting
fruit.
Again, their example here might
be very good to recall today.
