Feast of St Peter and Paul 29.6.14 Called to greatness
Why did God entrust His Church to human agency which makes such heavy work of it? Because He wanted us to be saved through our own cooperation and not just leaving it all to Him.
The sins we commit, the errors we make, are all part of the learning process as we slowly make our way back to how God always intended us to be.
The progress of Sts Peter and Paul are examples of the human and divine working at the same time, with finally the divine winning out and the human being perfected.
We can consider Peter and Paul at the personal level and also for what they symbolise.
At the personal level we see that both men had transforming experiences. Peter probably would have been happy to end his days as a fisherman and would not have expected to go down in history in such a famous role.
But he was called to greatness, and with some hesitation, fulfilled his destiny.
Many identify with Peter as a person who speaks before he thinks, yet who has an admirable warmth and sincerity. Peter needed his honesty and directness harnessed for a higher cause.
Paul had great zeal for the things of God. But he had the wrong belief. He accepted correction humbly. Then he applied the same zeal in the right cause.
Both men convey a quickness to grasp an ideal and immediately apply it. We all want these qualities such as warmth, honesty, courage, zeal… to be good in a crisis.
We are not all called to such greatness as Peter and Paul were, but we all have certain good qualities which need enhancing, focusing, refining… And we all have things wrong with us which need removing or correcting.
As we see, it does not take much to derail someone from being a good disciple of Christ. Only one or two faults can do it. To be a fully operational fighting machine, a truly dedicated and useful disciple requires that we work on it constantly. Like a racing car.
God can take someone and form him; bring out his best qualities while chipping away the bad points.
So we are all here for repairs, to be made ready for the big race.
This is the battle that every individual must fight; the transformation we all need to experience.
At the more symbolic level: Peter, we could say, represents the fixed nature of the Church and Paul the mobile.
What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? The Church needs to be both these things.
Immovable, insofar as we possess the core truth. We stand as a house of rock which will not fall over no matter how strong the winds of adversity blow.
The world tells us we should update our teachings. We say we cannot change the fundamental truths which God Himself has put in place. We can change our behaviour (for the better) and we agree we should do that, but not the teachings.
Irresistible force: is represented by Paul, the great evangeliser, missionary. He understood that the Gospel is meant for the whole world, all nations.
The Gospel at one level can be resisted, and rejected, but as the word of God it carries a certain force which no human agency can quell.
If we are to ignore it we have to turn truth on its head, and ourselves inside out not to see its compelling nature. My word does not return to Me empty, said the Lord (Is 55,11).
So the Church is both – immoveable and irresistible – or would be if enough of us played our part.
May the prayers of Sts Peter and Paul help us to improve, both at the personal and ecclesial levels, and see better days.
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