Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

“The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe to his heavenly Kingdom” (2 Tim. 4:18). Today, we celebrate the deaths of two pillars of the church: Saints Peter and Paul. Both had a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, which changed their lives. Both heard the call of the Lord and sought to respond with their whole heart, soul, mind, and strength (cf. Matt. 22:37). After pouring themselves out in the service of the Gospel, they found themselves in Rome, where they made their most profound profession of faith.

They made Ruth’s comment to Naomi their own. “Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die and be buried. Let nothing but death separate me from you” (Ruth 1:16-17). Following their example, we are invited to follow Christ every day of our lives, joining with Him in our joys and hopes, as well as in our griefs and anxieties, knowing that all is grace. The more we bear witness to Christ in the world, the more we enter into the depths of his love for the world.

Tertullian said, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of faith”. As the martyr’s blood soaked into the ground, the seed of the Word put forth deep roots. Their voices might be silenced, but their message continues to go forth to the ends of the earth. Paul wrote: “I am bound in chains like a criminal. But, the Word of the Lord cannot be restrained or chained” (2 Tim. 2:9). The preachers may die, but the Word lives on. The Word of the Lord is unstoppable. Its messengers may be weak or imprisoned, but the Word of God is powerful and capable of accomplishing its purpose regardless of all obstacles placed in its way. St. Paul’s words echoed in my heart. “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither things present nor things to come, nor any forces of nature, neither height nor depth, not anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.8:38-39).

The messengers were put to death, but their message lives on. God’s Word, though delivered by human spokesmen, was not limited by human language or suppressed by persecution. The message of the Gospel remains free to spread and impact lives. The courage and conviction of the martyrs in the face of persecution served as a powerful testimony to the truth of the Gospel. Peter and Paul were grafted to Christ. They bore a single purpose with the combined strength of mind, body, and voice. They supported each other like brothers in their zeal for the Gospel. There was something of the young man’s fire in Peter’s old bones, and something of old man’s wisdom in Paul’s youthful vigor. They shared their life of Faith as a powerful force, inspiring conversions, strengthening the Christian community, and ultimately leading to the growth and spread of Christianity. 

Saint Augustine wrote: “The earth has been filled with the blood of the martyrs as with seed, and from that seed have sprung the crops of the church. They have asserted Christ’s cause more effectively when dead than when they were alive. They continue to assert it today; they preach Christ today. Their tongues may be silent, but their deeds echo round the world. They were arrested, bound, imprisoned, brought to trial, tortured, burned at the stake, stoned to death, run through, fed to wild beasts. In all their kinds of death, they were jeered at as worthless, but “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Saint Augustine). The enduring power of God’s Word cannot be stopped.

Today’s feast confirms the words of the prophet Isaiah. “The word that goes out from my mouth will not return to me unfruitful. It will accomplish all I desire and achieve whatever I sent it to do” (Is. 55:11). For a follower of Christ, life’s ultimate purpose is found in Christ. The life of faith is centered on Christ. Our lives are meant to manifest His purpose to the world. The apostles turned the violence of those who rejected the message they preached into the supreme proof of love. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. Death is not an ending but a transition to a closer relationship with Him.

Copiously bedewed with the blood of many martyrs, the Church in our time reaps the grace-filled fruits of the holiness of her children. Martyrs and confessors are those who, for the sake of the glory of the age to come, sacrificed themselves in this present age… May the supplications of the ancient righteous ones of the land of Ukraine and the sufferings of our confessors of the holy Gospel rise as fragrant incense before the throne of the Most High; for it is by their sacrifices that the Church of Christ is regenerated and strengthened in the midst of our people” (Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church 326).