Ss. Peter and Paul - Rector's Rambling for June 27, 2021

     This week we celebrate on Tuesday, June 29, the Feast of Ss. Peter and Paul.

Technically, on our traditional calendar it is the Feast of St. Peter.  But there is also a great tradition that, on the various dates when St. Peter or St. Paul are commemorated, there is also a collect for the other one of this duo: their deaths, as well as Peter’s Confession that Jesus is Messiah, and Paul’s Conversion on the road to Damascus.

The new calendar commemorates Peter’s Confession and Paul’s Conversion eight days apart in January, and it has become the occasion to pray for the unity of the Church.

There couldn't be two people who are less alike than St. Peter and St. Paul.  Peter was a simple fisherman who was often impulsive, and was as often wrong as he was right in his speaking to and about Jesus.  One minute Jesus is confirming Peter’s Confession by proclaiming him The Rock, and shortly afterwards chiding him for wanting to prevent Jesus from going to Jerusalem to die.

St. Paul, on the other hand, was a more affluent, educated, and cultured man, with religious training as a pharisee whose family had arranged for them to have Roman citizenship.

Yet these two became the great leaders and evangelists for the new Church.  St. Peter is usually considered the Apostle to the Jews because his work was primarily to them, and St. Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles because of his desire to incorporate them into the new covenant sealed in Jesus’ own blood.  But of course, both men preached to both Jew and Gentile.

They shared in common that they both died for the faith in Rome, and that they had a burning desire to share the Good News that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that he has died and risen for the forgiveness of sin.