Peter and Paul: A new way of being brothers
"Peter and Paul much as they differ from one another in human
terms and notwithstanding the conflicts that arose in their
relationship, illustrate a new way of being brothers, lived according to
the Gospel, an authentic way made possible by the grace of Christ’s
Gospel working within them". "Only by following Jesus does one arrive
at this new brotherhood”; this according to Pope Benedict XVI is the
fundamental message of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.
Below is the official
English translation of the Holy Father's Homily during Mass:
Your Eminences, Brother Bishops and Priests, Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We
are gathered around the altar for our solemn celebration of Saints
Peter and Paul, the principal Patrons of the Church of Rome. Present
with us today are the Metropolitan Archbishops appointed during the past
year, who have just received the Pallium, and to them I extend a
particular and affectionate greeting. Also present is an eminent
Delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, sent by
His Holiness Bartholomaios I, and I welcome them with fraternal and
heartfelt gratitude. In an ecumenical spirit, I am also pleased to greet
and to thank the Choir of Westminster Abbey, who are providing the
music for this liturgy alongside the Cappella Sistina. I also greet the Ambassadors and civil Authorities present. I am grateful to all of you for your presence and your prayers.
In
front of Saint Peter’s Basilica, as is well known, there are two
imposing statues of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, easily recognizable by
their respective attributes: the keys in the hand of Peter and the sword
held by Paul. Likewise, at the main entrance to the Basilica of Saint
Paul Outside the Walls, there are depictions of scenes from the life and
the martyrdom of these two pillars of the Church. Christian tradition
has always considered Saint Peter and Saint Paul to be inseparable:
indeed, together, they represent the whole Gospel of Christ. In Rome,
their bond as brothers in the faith came to acquire a particular
significance. Indeed, the Christian community of this City considered
them a kind of counterbalance to the mythical Romulus and Remus, the two
brothers held to be the founders of Rome. A further parallel comes to
mind, still on the theme of brothers: whereas the first biblical pair of
brothers demonstrate the effects of sin, as Cain kills Abel, yet Peter
and Paul, much as they differ from one another in human terms and
notwithstanding the conflicts that arose in their relationship,
illustrate a new way of being brothers, lived according to the Gospel,
an authentic way made possible by the grace of Christ’s Gospel working
within them. Only by following Jesus does one arrive at this new
brotherhood: this is the first and fundamental message that today’s
solemnity presents to each one of us, the importance of which is
mirrored in the pursuit of full communion, so earnestly desired by the
ecumenical Patriarch and the Bishop of Rome, as indeed by all
Christians.
In the passage from Saint Matthew’s Gospel that we
have just heard, Peter makes his own confession of faith in Jesus,
acknowledging him as Messiah and Son of God. He does so in the name of
the other Apostles too. In reply, the Lord reveals to him the mission
that he intends to assign to him, that of being the “rock”, the visible
foundation on which the entire spiritual edifice of the Church is built
(cf. Mt 16:16-19). But in what sense is Peter the rock? How is he
to exercise this prerogative, which naturally he did not receive for
his own sake? The account given by the evangelist Matthew tells us first
of all that the acknowledgment of Jesus’ identity made by Simon in the
name of the Twelve did not come “through flesh and blood”, that is,
through his human capacities, but through a particular revelation from
God the Father. By contrast, immediately afterwards, as Jesus foretells
his passion, death and resurrection, Simon Peter reacts on the basis of
“flesh and blood”: he “began to rebuke him, saying, this shall never
happen to you” (16:22). And Jesus in turn replied: “Get behind me,
Satan! You are a hindrance to me ...” (16:23). The disciple who, through
God’s gift, was able to become a solid rock, here shows himself for
what he is in his human weakness: a stone along the path, a stone on
which men can stumble – in Greek, skandalon. Here we see the
tension that exists between the gift that comes from the Lord and human
capacities; and in this scene between Jesus and Simon Peter we see
anticipated in some sense the drama of the history of the papacy itself,
characterized by the joint presence of these two elements: on the one
hand, because of the light and the strength that come from on high, the
papacy constitutes the foundation of the Church during its pilgrimage
through history; on the other hand, across the centuries, human weakness
is also evident, which can only be transformed through openness to
God’s action.
And in today’s Gospel there emerges powerfully the
clear promise made by Jesus: “the gates of the underworld”, that is, the
forces of evil, will not prevail, “non praevalebunt”. One
is reminded of the account of the call of the prophet Jeremiah, to whom
the Lord said, when entrusting him with his mission: “Behold, I make
you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against
the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests,
and the people of the land. They will fight against you; but they shall
not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver
you!” (Jer 1:18-19). In truth, the promise that Jesus makes to
Peter is even greater than those made to the prophets of old: they,
indeed, were threatened only by human enemies, whereas Peter will have
to be defended from the “gates of the underworld”, from the destructive
power of evil. Jeremiah receives a promise that affects him as a person
and his prophetic ministry; Peter receives assurances concerning the
future of the Church, the new community founded by Jesus Christ, which
extends to all of history, far beyond the personal existence of Peter
himself.
Let us move on now to the symbol of the keys, which we heard
about in the Gospel. It echoes the oracle of the prophet Isaiah
concerning the steward Eliakim, of whom it was said: “And I will place
on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none
shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open” (Is 22:22).
The key represents authority over the house of David. And in the Gospel
there is another saying of Jesus addressed to the scribes and the
Pharisees, whom the Lord reproaches for shutting off the kingdom of
heaven from people (cf. Mt 23:13). This saying also helps us to
understand the promise made to Peter: to him, inasmuch as he is the
faithful steward of Christ’s message, it belongs to open the gate of the
Kingdom of Heaven, and to judge whether to admit or to refuse (cf. Rev
3:7). Hence the two images – that of the keys and that of binding and
loosing – express similar meanings which reinforce one another. The
expression “binding and loosing” forms part of rabbinical language and
refers on the one hand to doctrinal decisions, and on the other hand to
disciplinary power, that is, the faculty to impose and to lift
excommunication. The parallelism “on earth ... in the heavens”
guarantees that Peter’s decisions in the exercise of this ecclesial
function are valid in the eyes of God.
In Chapter 18 of Matthew’s
Gospel, dedicated to the life of the ecclesial community, we find
another saying of Jesus addressed to the disciples: “Truly I say to you,
whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt 18:18). Saint John,
in his account of the appearance of the risen Christ in the midst of
the Apostles on Easter evening, recounts these words of the Lord:
“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven: if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (Jn
20:22-23). In the light of these parallels, it appears clearly that the
authority of loosing and binding consists in the power to remit sins.
And this grace, which defuses the powers of chaos and evil, is at the
heart of the Church’s ministry. The Church is not a community of the
perfect, but a community of sinners, obliged to recognize their need for
God’s love, their need to be purified through the Cross of Jesus
Christ. Jesus’ sayings concerning the authority of Peter and the
Apostles make it clear that God’s power is love, the love that shines
forth from Calvary. Hence we can also understand why, in the Gospel
account, Peter’s confession of faith is immediately followed by the
first prediction of the Passion: through his death, Jesus conquered the
powers of the underworld, with his blood he poured out over the world an
immense flood of mercy, which cleanses the whole of humanity in its
healing waters.
Dear brothers and sisters, as I mentioned at the
beginning, the iconographic tradition represents Saint Paul with a
sword, and we know that this was the instrument with which he was
killed. Yet as we read the writings of the Apostle of the Gentiles, we
discover that the image of the sword refers to his entire mission of
evangelization. For example, when he felt death approaching, he wrote to
Timothy: “I have fought the good fight” (2 Tim 4:7). This was
certainly not the battle of a military commander but that of a herald of
the Word of God, faithful to Christ and to his Church, to which he gave
himself completely. And that is why the Lord gave him the crown of
glory and placed him, together with Peter, as a pillar in the spiritual
edifice of the Church.
Dear Metropolitan Archbishops, the Pallium that I have conferred on you will always remind you that you have been constituted in and for
the great mystery of communion that is the Church, the spiritual
edifice built upon Christ as the cornerstone, while in its earthly and
historical dimension, it is built on the rock of Peter. Inspired by this
conviction, we know that together we are all cooperators of the truth,
which as we know is one and “symphonic”, and requires from each of us
and from our communities a constant commitment to conversion to the one
Lord in the grace of the one Spirit. May the Holy Mother of God guide
and accompany us always along the path of faith and charity. Queen of
Apostles, pray for us! Amen.
In
reflections before the midday Angelus prayer, marking the feast of
Saints Peter and Paul this Friday, Pope Benedict XVI highlighted the
universal and ecumenical value of the liturgical feast. From the window
of his study high above a sun drenched St. Peter’s Square the Pope drew
the attention of the thousands of pilgrims and visitors to the statues
of the two great Saints, who are also Protectors of Rome.
Rome, he said “bears inscriptions in its history of the life and glorious death of the humble fisherman of Galilee and the Apostle to the Gentiles, whom she has rightly chosen as her Protectors. Recalling their luminous witness, we remember the venerable beginnings of the Church that in Rome that believes, prays and proclaims, Christ the Redeemer”.
But he continued “the Saints Peter and Paul not only shine in the sky of Rome, but in the heart of all believers who, enlightened by their teaching and by their example, all over the world walk the path of faith, hope and charity. On this road to salvation the Christian community, supported by the presence of the Spirit of the living God, feels encouraged to continue strong and serene on the path of fidelity to Christ and proclamation of his Gospel to men of all time”.
Taking part in Friday’s celebrations, a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and an Anglican choir from Westminster Abbey, who joined the Sistine Chapel choir in Mass Friday morning during which the Pope bestowed the pallium on 40 new Metropolitan Archbishops from across the universal Church.
In his Angelus reflections Pope Benedict said: "The bestowing of the pallium …is also part of this fruitful spiritual and missionary itinerary”. “It highlights the intimate communion of pastors with the Successor of Peter and the deep bond that binds us to the apostolic tradition. This is a double treasure of holiness, which blends together the unity and catholicity of the Church: a precious treasure to be rediscovered and lived with renewed enthusiasm and continued commitment. "
He concluded: "Dear pilgrims, gathered here from all over the world! In this day of celebration, we pray with the Liturgy of the East:" Praise be to Peter and Paul, these two great lights of the Church, who shine in the firmament of Faith. "May the Blessed Virgin leads all believers in Christ to the goal of full unity!"
Rome, he said “bears inscriptions in its history of the life and glorious death of the humble fisherman of Galilee and the Apostle to the Gentiles, whom she has rightly chosen as her Protectors. Recalling their luminous witness, we remember the venerable beginnings of the Church that in Rome that believes, prays and proclaims, Christ the Redeemer”.
But he continued “the Saints Peter and Paul not only shine in the sky of Rome, but in the heart of all believers who, enlightened by their teaching and by their example, all over the world walk the path of faith, hope and charity. On this road to salvation the Christian community, supported by the presence of the Spirit of the living God, feels encouraged to continue strong and serene on the path of fidelity to Christ and proclamation of his Gospel to men of all time”.
Taking part in Friday’s celebrations, a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and an Anglican choir from Westminster Abbey, who joined the Sistine Chapel choir in Mass Friday morning during which the Pope bestowed the pallium on 40 new Metropolitan Archbishops from across the universal Church.
In his Angelus reflections Pope Benedict said: "The bestowing of the pallium …is also part of this fruitful spiritual and missionary itinerary”. “It highlights the intimate communion of pastors with the Successor of Peter and the deep bond that binds us to the apostolic tradition. This is a double treasure of holiness, which blends together the unity and catholicity of the Church: a precious treasure to be rediscovered and lived with renewed enthusiasm and continued commitment. "
He concluded: "Dear pilgrims, gathered here from all over the world! In this day of celebration, we pray with the Liturgy of the East:" Praise be to Peter and Paul, these two great lights of the Church, who shine in the firmament of Faith. "May the Blessed Virgin leads all believers in Christ to the goal of full unity!"
