HOMILY PETER AND PAUL 2025
THE ROCK AND A HARD PLACE
Mt 16.13-19 AA 12.1-11 2Tim 4.6-8,-17-18
I’ll start this week back in 1971, when I was with Bill Attard and 25 others, including 5 young chaps from Essendon, in first year at Corpus Christi College seminary at Werribee. Our first theology lecturer was Father Peter Kenny, whom you’d know from Moonee Ponds, now 90, and enjoying well-earned retirement. The subject was Ecclesology, and today’s Gospel was one of his classic references to the Primacy of Peter, along with passages from Mark, Luke and John, John’s being in the Bread of Life chapter, relatively early on. So there are many variations on a theme, but the conclusion is that Peter, from early on, after Jesus’ call to discipleship, is the key figure in leadership of the group Jesus has chosen.
(I remember writing a very long essay on the subject, but somehow it got lost along the way, over the last 54 years, so I can’t share it with you now. You can be very thankful!!)
At the same time, it’s sobering to remember that Peter is the enthusiastic, but impulsive one, who leaps forward to profess his faith in Jesus, only then to not wish to hear the dark message of future rejection and suffering as part of the deal, as predicted by Jesus. Later on, Jesus uses harsh words to criticise Peter’s reluctance to accept the tough stuff, even saying ‘Get behind me, Satan’, strong words reflecting the human reality of Jesus facing the temptation to avoid the difficult path ahead.
Then there’s John’s account of Peter’s initial refusal to have Jesus wash his feet at the Last Supper, but then doing a reversal and wanting a full face wash too, once Jesus explains that this is about service of others, and that he is showing the way for the future, once he has gone from them. Not long afterwards, there is the denial and retreat into the darkness, as Peter wimps out, not wanting to face the metaphorical heat, as he fulfils Jesus’ prophecy that he would deny him, despite his objections that this could never be. It’s not as if it was predetermined, but more that Jesus had deep insight into the flaws in the one he had designated as future leader of the band of disciples, and then the evolving Church.
The lesson, I guess, is that human weakness is inherent, always there in each one of us, and we have to face up to dealing with it, accepting that sometimes we are going to cave in, but also believing there is forgiveness and another chance, as Peter experienced in his mission of discipleship. So, as I often say, there’s hope for us all whatever our failures.
Then we have Paul, an interesting character, with a psychological profile revealing one who certainly experienced his darker moments of depression and weakness, despite his enthusiastic personality and energetic nature. As we know, he started off as an avid persecutor of the early Christians, and then, with the Damascus experience (and I baptized a Damascus a year or so ago!), whether he fell off his horse or not, or went blind, doing a U-turn and evolving into probably the most determined and well-travelled missionary Christian preacher and teacher of all, notwithstanding shipwrecks, torture, and occasional imprisonment here and there along the way.
He makes no bones about the fact he has had to face up to his faults, speaking of the thorn in his side, but this doesn’t prevent him from persevering in proclaiming the Gospel, and encouraging believers, from all sorts of backgrounds and beliefs, with no distinction, to give the Gospel a go in building up their communities according to the principles and practices taught by Jesus. Ever focussed on Jesus, he’s no self-important narcissist, but believes in his mission to encourage and maintain the growth of the faith of those with whom he comes into contact in his extensive travels, whatever his apparent fear of women at times!
What do they say to us? We’re not facing up to torture and crosses literally, but life’s trials are always there, and the faith perspective does help us work our way through them, when they arise, which they are bound to do, at various stages of our lives. Jesus reminds us that we are given strength and grace to face up to adversity, suffering and loss, and Peter and Paul remind us of that, in living their faith and leading by example.
In a very down to earth tome, Australian author Christos Tsiolkas (of Greek Orthodox background), wrote ‘Damascus’ in 2019, in which he envisaged the life and times of Paul, after immersing himself in life there in the local scene, for a year, before putting pen to paper. It’s raw and challenging, but reflects his perspective on how day to day life was at that time, in all of its roughness and general lack of care and compassion. Paul is portrayed as coming into this dark and often brutal scenario, with determination to bring the Christian perspective into the lives of the ordinary people, and give them hope in seeing a better way of living through faith, and applying it in practice.
To quote one review: “I related to Tsiolkas’ heart, which aligns with Saul’s ‘misery at what the world is. At what the world can do’, if only we could recover those original Christian values of loving our neighbour, of treating every person we meet with equal respect, so much of that misery would be gone.”
And another: “It is the source of light that empowers slaves and the poor and the condemned to believe in their redemption in a world that offers them none… ‘They all grasp for the light… It is all around but can never be grasped. It is everywhere.’ ”
I see some positive insights here into the core of the Christian message, so lacking in so many parts of our world today. Yet, we persevere in continuing to live our faith as well as we can.
What more can we say about this diverse pair of Peter and Paul? Says Claude Mostowik MSC: “They seem to have spent very little time together, though celebrated together. Peter and Paul would go their separate ways, Peter mainly to the Jews of Israel, Paul mainly to the Gentiles of Syria, Turkey and Greece. Their differing, yet complementary missions emphasise the diversity within the unity of the Church.”
Both end up in Rome as martyrs for the faith, meeting sticky ends, as they say, Peter by the upside down cross, and Paul by the sword, Paul the universalist, Peter the upholder of faith and tradition, both faithful to the end, in the end.
john hannon 29th June 2025