Sts Peter and Paul

29th June, 2008      Sts Peter and Paul

 

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Sts Peter and Paul went through their lives and minitry strong in the belief that God was with them, that God was accompanying them on their pilgrimage of life…..   guiding them and supporting them in the mission and their proclamation of the Good news…

 

time and time again, they were saved from imprisonment and death….  and continued on their way, boldly proclaiming the good news….  but they were not under any illusions…..   although they often praised God for his constant love, protection and grace…..  and were grateful for the times they were saved from death…..   they knew that being Jesus’ friends and disciples was not about having permanent protection from suffering, imprisonment and death…. after all, their Master and the founder of the message  they proclaimed… suffered the most terrible fate on the Cross……   being a disciple is not a guarantee of safety or absolute physical protection….  it is not, as we know too well, a charm to prevent all illness or even death…..    but nevertheless…. our discipleship does give us hope and trust… that God remains with us, in the ups and downs of life…. in good times and bad………   in sickness and in health….  in peace and in times of turmoil……….    God is with us… to lead us to eternal life, where we will share eventually in the fullness of Jesus’ Kingdom and have eternal life…  this life begins now… and can be experienced profoundly in so many ways here and now……… but we know the fullness is to be experienced only in the world to come.

 

We Catholics believe that the Pope is the successor of the special role of St Peter… as the foundation stone on which Christ builds his church……    and so, it is timely that we celebrate this feast as the church in Australia prepares to host the World Youth day pilgrimage in Sydney.  The pope will visit our land, and we will join our prayers to those of our pilgrims who will travel down from here to Sydney to be part of the celebration of unity and faith…..    we too, will get to host, less than two weeks…. the international pilgrims who will visit our area… and we will all celebrate and encounter the richness of the universal church….   a church including people from every race, language and culture…..    all one In Christ….   

 

but of course…   in many ways, World Youth day is a living symbol… a to n expression of something much, much bigger….   it’s a chance to celebrate our identity… our membership of the Catholic Christian faith family….   and, as one pilgrim has written…” World youth day has the potential to be great if it is seen as part of a long-term strategy by the church to engage young people….  to enkindle in us all the fire of the Good News that drove the apostles to the ends of the earth in Jesus name…..   and inspired and enlivened them to establish permanent local communities deeply embedded in the principles, life and values of Jesus’ Kingdom….   World Youth day is an encounter and expression of our need to encounter eachother in faith…  for the leadership of the church to meet the young people f the church… and to listen… really listen to each other…. with open hearts…. hearts tuned to the gospel………  if that is not done.. then, as another WYD writer put it recently… unless that happens, then it will have been little more than an expensive gathering of young people…. and please God (with the Spirit of God at work)… it will be a LOT more than that.  

 

St Paul, the apostle to the Gentile nations would be so proud today… as he looks at all that Christ has achieved in and through his church…..   he would be the first to remind us to celebrate our ‘unity in diversity’

 

When Jesus asks ‘who do people say I am….. and then asks the even more important question….  ‘who do YOU say I am’    Simon replies….   “You are the Christ, the son of God.”   It is really important for us to see why Jesus then immediately says his next words…..   you could almost add a “because” into Jesus sentence…..  “Because you say that I am the Christ, the son of the Living God, you are Petros….YOU are the rock on which I will build my church.” 

 

The church is founded upon the rock of the reality that Jesus is THE Christ… THE son of the living God…. and that Jesus is God the SON……    as important as it is that Peter proclaimed these words…..//  … even more importantly is that he proclaimed the central POINT of our Faith… it is BECAUSE Jesus is the Son of God that we are who we are… // that we Christians live as we live…..//   and it is BECAUSE of who Jesus is that we share in the actual divine life and relationship of God by uniting ourselves in mind, heart and communion to Jesus…….    

 

and this changes everything….  it gives us the grace, the love and the freedom to live and to act as Jesus did……    and in so many ways….  by our words, actions and lives…  to set prisoners free… to declare God’s favour to each other…. and to cancel so many types of debt that we can hold over one another……    to BE, as Peter, Paul and the apostles are….. GOOd news to the poor…..