Scripture for
meditation: Matthew 16:18-19
“I for my part declare to you, you are ‘Rock’, and on
this rock I will build my church, and the jaws of death shall not prevail
against it. I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.”
Scripture for
reflection: Acts 9:3-6
As he traveled along and was approaching Damascus, a
light from the sky suddenly flashed about him. He fell to the ground and at the
same time heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are
you, sir?” he asked. The voice answered, “I am Jesus, the one you are
persecuting. Get up and go into the city, where you will be told what to do.”
Fr. Robert Barron
tells us: But the two indispensible people, the ones without whom the Church
never would have emerged and survived, are Peter and Paul. Why these two? Peter
was the head of the apostles, the one appointed by Jesus to lead the new Israel;
he was the unwavering witness to the resurrection, the rock. And Paul was the
first Christian theologian, the one who grasped the full implication of the
resurrection of Jesus from the dead and who therefore helped the Christian
movement to become a worldwide phenomenon. Due to their centrality, Peter and
Paul are not merely of historical interest; they live on as determining
archetypes in the community of Jesus to the present day….Hans Urs von
Balthasar, one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century, said that
Peter and Paul are enduring archetypes in the life of the Church. Peter, who
led the original band of the twelve, stands for office, structure, hierarchy,
and headship – all those ways that the Church is ordered to achieve its
purpose. Every priest, bishop, pastor, and pope is, in this sense, a descendant
of Peter. And Paul, who went out to the nations as an evangelist to the
Gentiles, stands, Balthazar says, for mission, the engagement of the culture
and proclamation. Every missionary, teacher, preacher, and theologian is, in
this sense, a son or daughter of Paul. Without the Petrine discipline, the Pauline
work would be unfocused and continually in danger of dissolution. Without the
Pauline energy, the Petrine work would devolve into cold management and
ecclesiastical bureaucracy. The two together, in tensive harmony, have
propelled the church through the centuries and around the world (Catholicism, A journey to the Heart of
Faith, Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, 2011).
Prayer: Praise to
you, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in your great mercy
have given us new birth and hope through the power of Christ’s resurrection.
Through the prayers of the apostles Peter and Paul may we who receive this
faith through their preaching share their joy in following the Lord to the
unfading inheritance reserved for us in heaven. We ask this in the name of
Jesus the Lord.
My thoughts: God
has a plan for everything. It takes our cooperation to make His plan viable.
Peter had denied Jesus during His passion, yet because he sought forgiveness
and did not give up on himself as Judas did, he went on to become the head of
Christ’s Church. Paul participated in the murder of Christians, yet when he was
knocked off his horse, he did not deem himself unworthy to proclaim the Good
News, but instead he allowed himself to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to be
used by God to spread the gospel far and wide, affecting people even today by
his many letters. We are the Peters and Paul’s of today’s world. God needs us
just as he needed the two “indispensible men” of His early Church. We all
believe we are unworthy of the call, and can sometimes fall into our sinfulness
as an excuse for inaction. But that is wrong. We are indispensible to God’s
plan for today’s world. We must acknowledge our weaknesses and seek
forgiveness. Then we must become brave and bold, and allow God to use us as He
sees fit. Prayer, study and action will make us the “indispensible” men and
women of today.
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