Every year, on 29 June, the Church celebrates Saint Peter and Saint Paul, but have you ever wondered why these two saints are celebrated together? Both are regarded as pillars and foundations of the Church, and each one, from his special mission, helped the Gospel of Jesus to spread throughout the world and the Church to be established as the body of Christ, present in every corner of the world.
Peter was a humble fisherman who, listening to his brother Andrew speak of Jesus, follows him, and went from being a simple fisherman to being a fisher of men, an apostle of Jesus and leader of the nascent Church. Paul, on the contrary, was a Pharisee, son of Pharisees, a scholar of the law and zealous that it be fulfilled; he went from persecutor to evangeliser of the Gentiles. Both had a personal encounter with Jesus, both were called, both received the mission, and each one responded to his mission from what he was.
We can come to know Peter through different aspects; for example, we know him as the first Pope of the Church: Jesus himself gave him the mission of caring for the sheep of his flock (Jn 21:15-17) and set him as leader of his Church, placing in his hands the keys of the Kingdom (Mt 16:18-19); we can also remember him as the one who denied Jesus, yet who did not remain in his denial but, letting himself be looked upon with tenderness by Jesus (Lk 22:54-62), undergoes a conversion that commits him to love more, which also leads us to remember him for the threefold confession of love to his master.
We can remember Paul as the persecutor of Christians, a witness to the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:58), who, after his conversion on the road to Damascus, was transformed into an evangeliser of the Gentiles (Acts 9:1-18). It is he who receives the mission of bringing the Gospel to the pagan nations and, moved by missionary zeal, endured various kinds of persecutions and punishments in order to proclaim the message to Jews and Greeks.
Looking at the life of these two apostles, we can see that Jesus calls those whom he wishes and calls them with their different gifts to build the Kingdom. Peter received the mission of being a fisher of men, of not abandoning the flock of Jesus and of shepherding the Church; Paul receives the mission of preaching, of announcing the Good News to the pagan nations; Peter devotes himself at first to preaching to the Jews, Paul sets out to proclaim Christ to the Gentiles, both are encouraged by the same Spirit, and this same Spirit is the one who continues to encourage our Church and mission today. Both apostles teach us something important: to listen to Jesus when he calls us and to be willing to leave what we are, including our comforts, to let ourselves be transformed by his Spirit.
It is in the first letter to the Corinthians that Saint Paul presents one of the best-known images of the Church: the Church as the Body of Christ; he says: for just as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so it is also with Christ (1 Cor 12:12). This analogy of the Church as a body allows us to contemplate the plurality and diversity that the Church is invited to live.
Each member is important within the Church, and each of us, from our baptism, forms part of the Church, we enrich it with our gifts and we are called to offer them in order to extend the Kingdom from the gift that each one possesses.
In the light of this feast, we can ask ourselves several questions:
On this date when we celebrate two of the pillars of our Church, let us remember the love that Saint Mary Eugenia had for the Church and which she invited us to cultivate as well by praying for the Pope, successor of Peter, and for the universal Church, and let us renew our baptismal commitment to make the Kingdom of God visible there where our daily life is woven.