Daily Reflections

“Heart of Jesus, give to priests and those working for the salvation of souls, the power of touching the most hardened hearts.” – St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Matthew 16:18-19

You are Peter,
and on this rock I will build My Church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
– I will give you the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Whatever you bind on earth
will be held bound in heaven.
Whatever you loose on earth
will be held loosed in Heaven.
– I will give you the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Saints Peter and Paul,  Apostles (Solemnity)

The Apostles, Peter and Paul are the two Princes of the Apostles,  the foundations of the Church, on which She is firmly established as on a rock. This feast is almost entirely devoted to Saint Peter, the Bishop of Rome, the Great Apostle of the Gentiles, being more specifically honoured on June 30. The lessons and prayers of this Mass describe how his LORD and Master Jesus Christ prepares the fervent Apostle, Saint Peter, for the supreme office of the Papacy.

This feast marks the day of the translation of their relics.

SAINT PETER, APOSTLE 

Saint Mark ends the first half of his Gospel with a triumphant climax. He has recorded doubt, misunderstanding and the opposition of many to Jesus. Among the Twelve Apostles, Peter became the spokesman, he 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.

In the lists of the Apostles he is always given precedence, and at Pentecost he delivers the first fiery sermon of the infant Church.

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. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of the netherworld 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 trustworthiness 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’ 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. The Risen Jesus told Peter to feed His lambs and His sheep. (John 21:15-17)

SAINT PAUL, APOSTLE 

Although not one of the Twelve, Paul is also called an Apostle. By his own admission he was the apostle “born when no one expected it” (1 Co 15:8), having encountered the Resurrected Jesus as he rode to persecute the Christians of Damascus. Paul’s mission field was the vast Gentile territory in the eastern Mediterranean. 

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 central 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.

From a sermon by Saint Augustine, Bishop
(Sermo 295, 1-2.4.7-8:PL 38, 1348-1352)

The Martyrs realized what they taught

This day has been made holy by the passion of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. We are, therefore, not talking about some obscure martyrs. For their voice has gone forth to all the world, and to the ends of the earth their message. These martyrs realized what they taught: they pursued justice, they confessed the Truth, they died for it.

Saint Peter, the first of the Apostles and a fervent lover of Christ, merited to hear these words: I say to you that you are Peter, for he had said: You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Then Christ said: And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church. On this rock I will build the Faith that you now confess, and on your words: You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, I will build my Church. For you are Peter, and the name Peter comes from petra, the word for “rock,” and not vice versa. “Peter” comes, therefore, from petra, just as “Christian” comes from Christ.

As you are aware, Jesus chose His disciples before His Passion and called them Apostles; and among these almost everywhere Peter alone deserved to represent the entire Church. And because of that role which he alone had, he merited to hear the words: To you I shall give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. For it was not one man who received the keys, but the entire Church considered as One. Now insofar as he represented the unity and universality of the Church, Peter’s preeminence is clear from the words: To you I give, for what was given was given to all. For the fact that it was the Church that received the Keys of the Kingdom of God is clear from what the LORD says elsewhere to all the Apostles: Receive the Holy Ghost, adding immediately,whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven, and whose sins you retain, they are retained.

Rightly then did the LORD after His Resurrection entrust Peter with the feeding of His sheep. Yet he was not the only disciple to merit the feeding of the LORD’s sheep; but Christ in speaking only to one suggests the unity of all; and so he speaks to Peter, because Peter is first among the Apostles. Therefore do not be disheartened, Peter; reply once, reply twice, reply a third time. The triple confession of your love is to regain what was lost three times by your fear. You must loose three times what you bound three times; untie by love that which your fear bound. Once, and again, and a third time did the LORD entrust His sheep to Peter.

Both Apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed. And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the Apostles’ blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labours, their sufferings, their preaching and their confession of Faith.

Saints Peter and Paul

Holy and most kind Peter, faithful shepherd of the flock of God, chief of the Apostles, Prince among such mighty Princes. You are able to bind and loose as you will; you are able to heal and raise up as you will; you can give the Kingdom of Heaven to whom you will. Great Peter, rich with so many and such great gifts, high in so many and such great dignities, here am I, the poorest and weakest of men, surrounded by many difficulties and hardships. In my misery I need the help of your power and kindness…. Remember that Christ asked you three times if you loved Him, and when three times you confessed it He said to you, Feed My sheep. He is indeed a lover of the sheep who thus sifts the love of the shepherd before committing them to him. When you had confessed that you loved Him, then He confided His sheep to you. How then can this shepherd spurn his sheep? Peter, shepherd of Christ, gather up the lamb of Christ. Your LORD sought and found him and bore him on His shoulders, rejoicing; do not repel Him now that He comes back and prays….

Saint Paul, great Paul, one of the great Apostles of God, you followed after all the rest in time, but you surpassed them in labours and in effect in the husbandry of God. While you were still weighed down by the flesh you were rapt even to the third heaven, and heard things that cannot be said by men. Among Christians you were like a nurse who not only cared for her sons, but in some way brought them forth a second time, with careful and marvellous tenderness. You were made all things to all men so that you might gain all. Sir, you are known to the world by these and many other words and deeds to be of great power before God and of immense pity towards men: to you I come, certainly a very great sinner.

Saint Anselm

Saint Anselm († 1109) was an abbot, bishop, philosopher, and theologian. [From The Prayers and Meditations of St. Anselm with the Proslogion, translated by Benedicta Ward with a foreword by R. W. Southern

DAILY MEDITATION 

Sacred day, on which the obligation of the first of Pontiffs assures to the West, the rights of supreme Priesthood! Day of triumph, in which the effusion of a generous lifeblood wins for God, the conquest of the Roman soil; in which, upon the cross of His representative, the Divine Spouse concludes His Eternal alliance with the Queen of nations.

No crime of Rome’s is able to prevail against the great fact fixed forever at this hour: the cross of Peter has transferred to Her all the rights of the Cross of Jesus; leaving to the Jews the curse, she now becomes the true Jerusalem. Such being then the meaning of this day, it is not surprising, that Eternal Wisdom should have willed to enhance it still further, by joining the sacrifice of Paul to that of Peter. More than any other, Paul advanced by his preachings, the building up of the Body of Christ. If, on this day, Holy Church has attained such full development as to be able to offer Herself, in the person of Her visible Head, as a sweet-smelling sacrifice, who better than Paul may deservedly perfect the oblation, furnishing from his own veins, the sacred libation? The Bride having attained fullness of age, his own work is likewise ended. Inseparable from Peter in his labours of Faith and love, he will accompany him also in death; both quit this earth, leaving her to the gladness of the Divine nuptials sealed in their blood, whilst they ascend together, to that Eternal Abode wherein that union is consummated.

Dom Prosper Guéranger (d. 1875) – Brilliant Benedictine priest, scholar, abbot, and founder of what is now the Solesmes Congregation in France

RESPONSORY

Blessed Apostle Paul, preacher of the Truth and teacher of the Gentiles,
– you are truly worthy of praise.

Through you all peoples have come to know God’s Grace.
– You are truly worthy of praise.

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.” – Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen