This feast of Ss. Peter and Paul reminds us of our identity and our Mission: our identity is rooted in the immovable truth, bound and loosed for us by Peter and his successors, and our mission is the dynamic and irresistible proclamation of that truth, going out to the whole world like Paul. We are called to both stability and dynamism, aided by the promise that the gates of hell shall never overcome this living House of God.
One of the defining days of my life was 18 September 2010 – right in the middle of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United Kingdom. On that Saturday, early in the morning, young people from every corner of the country organised in brightly coloured T-Shirts and marshalled by their various dioceses descended on London. I, aged 18, was sent from my Parish of Chandlers Ford in a bright-blue Diocese of Portsmouth T-Shirt, carrying a massive sign I had made myself that read “We Love our German Shepherd” – Herzlich Wilkommen ins England Papst Benedict XVI. We arrived in the piazza outside Westminster Cathedral to watch the Papal Mass up on the big screen, at various points one of the girls from my group (another Anglo-German) sat on my shoulders waving my banner for the TV cameras – we made it onto the BBC news, ITV, and apparently even several German national channels.
There is a lot about that day that lives with me still. Seeing Pope Benedict XVI in person, and hearing him speak, put me immediately in mind of a kindly grandfather (perhaps because my own grandfather was also German, and they had a similar soft-spoken manner). Watching the Holy Father up close kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament in Hyde Park and seeing the devotion to the Lord in his eyes. Being so close to the successor of Peter and surrounded by so many tens of thousands of other Catholics making me feel like I was part of something bigger than myself or than my little community of a few hundred in Chandlers Ford on the edge of Southern Hampshire’s urban sprawl.
The thing that stood out to me in particular though, the thing that I remember even when everything else fades away, is the music. In particular, the first piece of music, written by the Scottish composer Sir James Macmillan, set to the words of today’s Gospel. As the Pope processed through Westminster Cathedral, between the almighty blasts and thunders of the organ, the men and boys of the Cathedral choir belted out Tu es Petrus, Tu es Petrus, you are Peter, et super hanc petram eructavit ecclesiam meam, and upon this rock I shall build my Church. It’s almost as if you’re hearing it alongside St Peter, the awe and fear as the Lord looks you in the eye and gives you a daunting mission, the organ mimicking the crashing of thunder and lightning in your mind; you are the rock, and upon this rock I shall build my Church. Simon, the sinful man, Simon, the simple fisherman, Simon, the one who always speaks up too quickly and more often than not gets told off by the Lord for the things he says. Simon, is the one chosen to be the rock. It must have felt like an earthquake, a shattering moment. It’s something Macmillan captures perfectly in that piece of music.
Then, the next phrase, Macmillan quiets down the Organ and the choir, and they sing softly; and I shall give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and the gates of hell shall never prevail against them. This is the calming of the storm because Jesus doesn’t just put the man Peter in charge, but he gives him the tools to succeed – the keys, the ministry of binding and loosing, the promise that hell will never overcome those keys or that rock. Our Catholic Church is rooted in this promise, above all others; that we have been given the immovable rock of Peter as the foundation for our house, that to Peter was entrusted the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, that whatever storms hell throws at this little house of God it will never be overcome, because it is built on a foundation of solid rock.
Today’s solemn feast day, of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, reminds us of our identity and our mission. It represents both the stability and the dynamic force of our faith. Our identity is stable, built on the rock, held in unity by the teachings of Peter and his successors who hold the Keys and bind and loose the truth for us. But our Mission is dynamic; Paul is the outstanding preacher of the faith, going out to the corners of the world to proclaim the truth, unbounded by nationality or class or colour or sex. As he himself writes to the Bishop Timothy;
The Lord stood by me and gave me power, so that through me the whole message might be proclaimed for all the pagans to hear.
The challenge to us today is that we are called to be both immovable rocks, and irresistible dynamic forces in the world; immovable in holding to the truth like a house built on rock, and dynamic in going out and sharing the goodness and the beauty of that truth with others. Today we are called to root ourselves in the truth and then share the whole message of the truth for everyone to hear.
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