LECTIONARY READINGS
First reading: Acts 12:1-11
Responsorial psalm: Ps 33(34):2-9
Second reading: 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18
Gospel: Matthew 16:13-19
Link to readings
In accordance with a very ancient tradition the Church links the Apostles Peter and Paul in a common feast, as the proto-martyrs of the Church of Rome. While each does have a supplementary feast to himself (St Peter’s Chair in Rome [22 February]; the Conversion of St Paul [25 January]), we might well think that each of these apostles is of sufficient stature to warrant a separate major feast in his own right – and inevitably, as the choice of readings for today’s feast reveals, it is Paul who is left holding the shorter straw.
This is regrettable because in many ways the Catholic Church has still to come to terms with Paul – to hear the witness of Paul along with and alongside the traditionally dominant tradition of Peter. The Reformation protest in the 16th century and the break of unity to which it led was largely inspired by the letters of Paul. Deeply wounded by the revolt, the Catholic Church shied away from Paul for centuries until at Vatican II the Pauline witness was heard again with renewed vigour.
REDISCOVERY OF PAUL
It is important to this rediscovery of Paul and not let a celebration of Peter completely overshadow his fellow apostle and martyr of the Church of Rome.
The scripture readings set down for today are not particularly helpful in this regard, since Paul is not really allowed to speak for himself in the Second Reading but only through the words of the post-Pauline author of 2 Timothy (4:6-8, 17-18). The passage puts into Paul’s mouth a stirring-enough reflection on his career as he senses the approach of the time when he is to join his Lord in the heavenly kingdom. He gives confident expression to his great trust in the fidelity of the Lord, to whom he himself has striven to be faithful throughout his long apostolic service.
More directly relevant to today’s joint feast would have been Paul’s account of his sharp exchange with Peter (‘Cephas’) at Antioch in Gal 2:11-14, where he rebuked the prince of the Apostles for ‘not walking a straight line in respect to the Gospel’ (v 14)! Where Paul represents the outward-thrusting, boundary-breaking tendency of the mission, Peter is the more central figure, the focus of unity, who holds the Church together by leading and educating the less adventurous to understand that the new direction indeed represents the call of God.
TWO IMPULSES
The Church will always need these two impulses: the Petrine focus of unity and link with the tradition; the Pauline outreach to the margins and the new. Today’s joint feast is a significant recognition of the existence of both impulses within the Church, and the need for them to be in dialogue and interplay for the health of its life and mission
The remaining two readings feature Peter. The Second Reading, Acts 12:1-11, provides a vivid description of his deliverance through divine intervention from the power of Herod (not Herod the Great, who reigned at the time of Jesus’ birth, but a later Herod, Agrippa 1). Peter had exercised leadership in the very early community of disciples in Jerusalem (Acts 1–5). Most recently (Acts 10-11) he had been a central figure in discerning that the Church should reach out beyond Judaism to the Gentile world, admitting converts from this world to citizenship in the renewed People of God. His miraculous rescue from imprisonment and threat of death is a divine ratification of that new direction, even if now another figure – Paul – is being called (Acts 9) to be the principal instrument of its realisation (Acts 13-14, 16-28).
FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH
The Gospel, inevitably and rightly, features the great Petrine text from Matt 16:13-19, where following his confession of Jesus as ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God,’ Peter is designated the ‘rock’ foundation on which Jesus will ‘build’ his Church. The link between ‘Peter’ and ‘rock’ is lost in English; it is very close in the Greek in which the Gospel was written and perfect in the Aramaic (‘Cepha’) which Jesus and the original disciples spoke. In biblical imagery the gift of the keys signifies delegated authority in the household of God (delegated from Christ; cf. Isa 22:20-25), and the power to bind and loose concerns the conveys authority to teach the way of life that will equip people for the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Catholic tradition finds here the scriptural validation for the ongoing Petrine ministry exercised by the Roman pontiff in the service of the Church. It is important to note where it all begins: in the God-given revelation to Peter of the true identity of Jesus. It is this ‘knowledge of Christ’ that is the Church’s supreme treasure to impart to the world –something upon which Peter and Paul are in total agreement.