The Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (2025)
Central to the Gospel for this Solemnity is the question that Jesus asked the disciples: “Who do you say that I am?”
How would you answer?
Maybe you might respond like the “some” referenced by the Apostles—Jesus is a nice guy, a good moral teacher, someone who tells us all to get along and be kind to each other.
On the other hand, maybe your answer might be something formulaic… a concise statement from the Catechism or a book of theology—Jesus the Word Incarnate, the Second Person of the Trinity, two Natures in one Person, and so on.
Peter and Paul—the Apostles whom we honor today—spent their lives coming to an ever deeper understanding of who Jesus was and they dedicated all their energy to sharing with others what they had to come to know to be true.
As we think about their faith and celebrate their legacy today, we realize that each of them offers us a model of faith…
First, there is Saint Peter.
In him, we find a man whose faith journey was marked by high highs and the lowest of lows, including his outright denial of even knowing Jesus only hours after that Last Supper on the night before Jesus died. He is the “rock” on which Christ promises to build his Church who, in almost the same breath, becomes a satan—a stumbling stone—when he objects to Jesus proclamation that Jesus must suffer and die and be raised from the dead (Matthew 16:16-23).
But then, we also have Peter after the Resurrection. This is the Peter to whom Jesus gives the instruction “Feed my lambs… care for my sheep” (John 21:15-19) This is the Peter who begins teaching with authority after Pentecost (Acts 2:14-39) and curing the sick in the name of Jesus (Acts 3:1-10).
Peter’s spiritual journey is very similar, I would imagine, to spiritual journey of many of us in this Church. We have heard the Lord’s invitation to “come and see” and we might have even willingly left behind things that represented the past—possessions, habits, relationships, preferences—to try to make the Gospel real in our daily lives. But growing in faith is a gradual process of unfolding… of going deeper into the mystery of who Jesus is as we experience both the gifts of his mercy and peace, even as we continue to wrestle with parts of our human nature that remain in need of healing and forgiveness.
Saint Peter reminds us, however, that, although we might fail in our commitment to live as disciples, the Lord continues to invite us, offering us the opportunity to begin again. The call to do and to be more is always there, as is the gift of grace that allows us to accept and live into that invitation!
Unlike Peter, Saint Paul’s coming to Christ happened all at once. Graced with an encounter with the Risen and Ascended Lord as he made his way to Damascus changed the trajectory of his life and set him on a path that would take him to the limits of the Eastern Roman Empire, proclaiming Christ in a non-Jewish world, so that, as he wrote to his disciple Timothy, through him “the proclamation might be completed and all the Gentiles might hear it” (2 Timothy 4:17). To say it another way, Paul spent his life proclaiming to anyone who would listen who and what he knew Jesus to be!
But as we think of Paul’s unique and privileged encounter with Christ had on that road—that encounter that changed everything—we also have to remember why he was there in the first place.
He was traveling to Damascus—where Christians had fled after the murder of the Saint Stephen the deacon—in order to arrest those followers of Jesus and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial. He was zealous in his persecution of the followers of Jesus and there was nothing about Paul—or Saul, as he was known at the time—that would have fit anyone’s idea of a potential disciple. But he was the one chosen by Christ to take the Gospel to the nations. So, while his conversion was sudden and absolute, he also stands as a powerful reminder to us that the Lord calls those whom he wants to be his servants.
As we celebrate the Solemnity of these two great saints—each a “pillar of the faith of the Church”—we are being invited to discover in their stories inspiration for our own disciple-journeys. These were very different men with very different experiences of Jesus, and yet both dedicated their lives to sharing with others what their encounters with the Lord had meant for their lives as they grew into the Apostles they were called to be. And as part of that call, they never hesitated to proclaim to the world who they knew Jesus to be: the Savior of the world who, simply out of his absolute love and mercy, had chosen them to be numbered among his followers.
In celebrating this Solemnity, we honor two people who gave all that they were in service of the Gospel and the Church. Whether our individual journeys are like Peter’s, like Paul’s, or something entirely unique, we can take comfort in knowing that God loves us and calls us for mission as well.
The question before us, then, is whether or not we are willing to let our encounter with Jesus Christ form… inform… and transform our own lives, just as it did for Peter and Paul.
Grant, we pray, O Lord our God,
that we may be sustained
by the intercession of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul,
that, as through them you gave your Church
the foundations of her heavenly office,
so through them you may help her to eternal salvation.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (Mass During the Day)
Homily prepared for Ss. Peter and Paul Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
