By sharing the cup of the Lord's suffering, they became the friends of
God. (Entrance antiphon)
ON THIS DAY WE CELEBRATE a special feast of the Church, symbolised by
the two great apostles, Peter and Paul. They were the two men around
whom the mission of Jesus to establish the Kingdom was centred and from
whom it grew and spread to every corner of the world. As the preface for
today's Mass puts it: "Peter raised up the church from the faithful
flock of Israel. Paul brought your call to the nations, and became the
teacher of the world. Each in his chosen way gathered into unity the one
family of Christ. Both shared a martyr's death and are praised
throughout the world." Each one represents two very distinct roles of
the Church in its mission to the world.
Source of stability
Peter represents that part of the Church which gives it stability:
its traditions handed down in an unbroken way from the very beginnings,
the structures which help to preserve and conserve those traditions,
the structure which also gives consistency and unity to the Church,
spread as it is through so many races, cultures, traditions, and
geographical diversity.
Peter today is represented by the pope, who is the great symbol of unity
and continuity. Without his role we would see the Church break up and
disintegrate, which has happened to such a large extent with those parts
of the Church, which broke away from the central body. A number of the
mainline non-Catholic Christian churches realise today the importance of
that central role of Peter and they are trying to find ways by which we
could all become one Church again, ways by which diversity could be
recognised but divisions removed, that all who believe in Christ might
find and express that unity (but not uniformity) for which Christ prayed
during the Last Supper.
Prophetic role
Paul, on the other hand, represents another key role, the prophetic and
missionary role.
It is that part of the Church which constantly works on the edge,
pushing the boundaries of the Church further out, not only in a
geographical sense but also pushing the concerns of the Church into
neglected areas of social concern and creatively developing new ways of
communicating the Christian message. This is the Church which is semper
reformanda, a Church which needs to be constantly renewed.
This renewal is spurred on by the Church's contact with the surrounding
world. This world is itself changing and, in our own times, changing
with bewildering speed. Not only new technologies but new knowledge and
new ideas continue to surface. Our rapidly changing societies call on us
to express the core of our faith in new ways.
The Church's agenda
As one Asian theologian used to say, "The world writes the agenda for
the Church." That does not mean that the Church is to conform to the
ways of the world. Quite the contrary. What it does mean is that the
Church's evangelising work has to be in response to where people
actually are. It is no good just handing out the same old things in the
same old way. If the Church is to remain relevant, if it is to continue
speaking in a meaningful way to rapidly changing world, if it is to keep
up with the new knowledge and ideas which change our ways of
understanding the world in which we live, it has to renew itself
constantly
in the way it expresses its message,
in the way it structures itself,
in the way it communicates its message,
in the way it dialogues with the world.
The world may not like what the Church has to say but it should be able
to understand it and be stimulated by it.
New challenges
A changing world involves new challenges of what is right and wrong, a
changing world brings about new social problems, new forms of poverty,
of injustice, of exploitation and discrimination, of lack of freedom and
the absence of peace.
Hence there have to be new ways of preaching and witnessing to the
Gospel of truth, of love, of justice, of freedom, of peace. For this we
need the prophetic role of the Church, built on the foundations of
tradition and continuity. We have to avoid the two tendencies either of
digging in and looking only to the past or of neglecting the traditions
and bringing in innovations with no foundations.
When faced with difficult situations, Catholics tend either to dig in
and become fundamentalist or to throw in the towel completely. Neither
is helpful either to the Church or to society.
God's accompanying presence
The readings today emphasise the presence of God in the work of his
Church. Peter's faith and acknowledgment of Jesus as the Messiah-Christ
and Saviour-King are rewarded by his being made the foundation on which
Christ will build his Church. Through Peter, Jesus gives his Church a
guarantee of never-ending protection. And he gives to Peter, as his
representative, the powers, which he himself had received from the
Father, the "keys of the Kingdom".
Through the centuries, the Church has been battered and countless
efforts made to wipe it out but it continues to benefit from Christ's
promise and overall to grow in numbers. And as long as it remains
faithful to the principles it received from Christ, principles which are
of the very nature of God and consonant with the deepest longings of
human nature, it cannot fail. Truth and love cannot be suppressed.
Doing the only thing possible
We see that in the First Reading where Peter is thrown into jail for
preaching the message of Christ and the Kingdom. As Paul, who was
himself in prison more than once, will say later, the word of God cannot
be bound. Peter finds release and then goes back to the only thing he
can do - proclaim the message of his beloved Master. The miraculous
release from prison symbolises that protection over his Church which
Jesus had promised in the Gospel. It is significant too that Peter's
imprisonment occurred during Passover week, the same week in which Jesus
himself was arrested and suffered.
A well-spent life
Paul in the Second Reading speaks first with gratitude of how his life
has been spent in the service of his Lord. "I have fought the good fight
to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith."
May we be able to say the same as we approach the end of our life. Paul
also speaks of how God continued to protect him through all kinds of
trials and persecutions. "The Lord stood by me and gave me power, so
that through me the whole message might be proclaimed for all the non-
believers to hear." He too knows that the Lord will continue to protect
him but he also knows that when his time comes he is ready to go.
Paul's love for Jesus is so intense that he finds it difficult to choose
between staying alive and working for the Kingdom or dying and being
reunited with Jesus, his beloved Lord. As he said once in a memorable
phrase, "For to me life is Christ, to die is gain." In either case, he
is with his beloved Lord.
Ever old, ever new
As we celebrate this feast today, let us both remain faithful to the
traditions which have come down to us over 2,000 years but, at the same
time, be ever ready to make the necessary changes and adaptations by
which the message of Christ can be effectively communicated to all those
who still have a hunger for that truth and love which over the centuries
never changes.
Let us pray today for the whole Church all over the world;
let us pray for our pope as the focus of unity for Christians
everywhere;
let us pray for those who, while remaining faithful to the core
traditions, are creatively finding new ways to proclaim the message of
the Kingdom to people everywhere;
let us pray for those places where the Church is working under great
difficulties;
let us pray for our own parish community that it may truly be both loyal
to the faith of our fathers and have a true missionary spirit
effectively to proclaim Christ to all those among whom we live.
In other words, what agenda is our local society writing for our local
church?
Doing what Jesus did in memory of him
All of this we do at every celebration of the Eucharist. The old Pasch
gives way to the new Pasch. The old unleavened bread gives way to the
bread that is the Body of Christ. The cup of wine gives way to the cup
of his own Blood poured out in love for us. We are to do this forever in
memory of him.
But the ritual, the liturgy has no real meaning unless it is fully an
expression of what the community is and wants to be, a covenant people,
faithfully carrying out the mission that God has given us in Jesus, a
united community gathered around the altar table.
Gathering and sharing
Here, as the Hebrews did at the foot of Mount Sinai, we listen to the
Word of God; here we, too, repeat our covenant promise to follow Jesus
all the way; here we gather round the table to eat and share together
the one loaf and the one cup.
It is through the united witness of Truth and Love which we give both in
the liturgy and in our daily life that we observe the covenant, are
truly God's people and draw others into that covenant experience.
How important it is for us to celebrate the Sunday liturgy with devotion,
with dignity, with joy, in unity! How important it is that what we do in
the Eucharist is truly reflected in the lives we lead!
Our Eucharist can only be as good as the community which celebrates it.
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