Mass during the Day
Readings of the day: Acts 12:1-11; Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18; Matthew 16:13-19
Readings of the day: Acts 12:1-11; Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18; Matthew 16:13-19
If we had the choice to place ourselves
in today’s readings as either Peter or Paul, who would we be? When I was a
catechist of both children and adults at St. Basil’s Church while in seminary
in Toronto, I would ask similar questions to this of my catechesis groups: If
you were able to be a character in the Biblical passage we just heard, other
than God, who would you be?
Who would you want to be or be like,
Peter or Paul? For those awaiting my answer to this question, I would want to
be a bit of both Peter and Paul. We may interpret my response
as either typically Catholic or a convenient excuse to evade the question:
“Both-and.”
Both Peter and Paul have qualities as
saints and apostles that I admire. And yet both Peter and Paul are in many
respects very different from each other.
At the risk of defining either Peter or
Paul too narrowly, Peter is often viewed as the free-spirited,
fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants (or perhaps his tunic, in those days) apostle,
Church leader, and missionary. Peter fails and repents often, sometimes
spectacularly. Peter follows Christ when it counts; asks the right questions when
it counts; gives the correct answer when it counts, even when he does not fully
understand the implications of his own words and actions.
Our readings today show Peter in action;
constantly open to and trusting in what God reveals to him as the correct
action or the correct answer in a particular situation. Can we imagine the
independent Peter, now imprisoned by Herod as we hear in our first reading from
Acts, “secured by double chains”; James, one of the three most trusted original
apostles along with Peter and John, “killed by the sword”? I imagine that this
would have been a deeply distressing situation for Peter; a deeply distressing
situation for the Church.
God would not allow this distressing
situation to persist, and so sends an angel to Peter to free him from prison.
Peter may have been independent, but he knew when to trust in God; to depend on
God. Three times in our first reading, Peter obeys the orders of God’s angel.
“‘Get up quickly’… The chains fell from his wrists… ‘Put on your belt and
sandals.’ He did so… ‘Put on your cloak and follow me.’ So he followed [the
angel] out” of prison.
Peter could not have planned this escape
from prison, but this episode fits the personality of Peter:
Fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants but trust God when it counts; be obedient when it
counts… Peter exclaims after breaking free from prison: “Now I know for certain
that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me…” These are not the words of
someone who had worked out a plan down to every fine detail.
Do we not see the same Peter in our
Gospel reading from Matthew? Here, Jesus asks the provocative question: “Who do
you say that I am?” How would we have answered this question if we were Peter?
Would we have repeated the gossip; the results of the latest opinion poll on
who Jesus is: “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets”? Or would we have responded as
freely and yet with as much trust in God as Peter: “You are the Christ, the Son
of the living God.”
We cannot plan for when we will be
called upon as Christians to be as bold as Peter; as independent as Peter and
yet as trusting in God’s revelation as Peter; as blessed as Peter, to whom
Jesus gives the responsibility to lead his Church.
“You are the Christ, the Son of the
living God.” These are not the words of someone who had worked out a planned
response down to every fine detail. On the one hand, we hear of the
free-spirited and independent Peter. On the other hand, we hear of Paul, the
missionary apostle but also more of a planner than Peter.
In the second Letter to Timothy, Paul
faces his own mortality serenely. This is part of God’s plan; of Paul’s plan
that has worked all along to give glory to God: “I have competed well; I have
finished the race; I have kept the faith… The Lord stood by me and gave me
strength.”
Again, then, if we had the choice to be
Peter or to be Paul; the free-spirit or the planner, who would we be?
Naturally, I am usually more like Paul
than like Peter; I am more of a detail-oriented planner. Ideally, I like to
prepare for upcoming events; assignments; speaking functions; important
liturgies days, weeks, or even months ahead of time. This is not always
possible, but I do not work as well under the pressure of an immediate deadline
as when I have time to plan. I admire those (when they do not make me envious
by exercising a gift that God did not give me) who seem to work best under the
pressure of a deadline.
Life as a Basilian has given me a
greater appreciation of people who are more like Peter than like Paul (Fr.
Morgan!).[1]
But I am still naturally more like Paul than like Peter, if I were to choose
between these two great apostles.
And yet how many of us would say that
our Church needs both people like
Peter and people like Paul? Our
Church; my religious community includes people more like Peter and people more
like Paul, and our church; our communities; our households; our workplaces are
enriched because of this.
There are times in which we need to plan
ahead like Paul to be most effective, and there are times (in my own
experience) in which planning can become like a prison from which we, like
Peter, are invited to break free.
The Church is a Church of Peter and
Paul. The Church needs both its
Peters and its Pauls. And so we
celebrate on this solemnity; this feast day two very important early apostles
together; two people who were at times very different from each other; two
people who responded to God’s revelation in different ways but together worked
to build one Church, God’s Church; two saints of the earliest days of the
Church; both Peter and Paul.
[1] Fr. Morgan Rice, CSB, is a
priest of the Congregation of St. Basil at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in
Irondequoit, NY.
