St. Peter and St. Paul – II
Friends in Christ, today is the feast of these two great saints, St. Peter and St. Paul, pillars of the Church.
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We read of the great promise Our Lord made: ‘The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church.’ Talking to people these days, they feel like the gates of hell are opened, and the Enemy is upon us.
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There has always been sin and evil, but in these latter days, it seems that those institutions that we thought would stand for goodness are calling evil good, and good evil. Of course the laws of God can never be superseded by the laws of Man, but it is really stunning to see venerable institutions such as the Supreme Court, and other leaders of stature saying what they are saying in these days.
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But the Gospel today tells us that we have first of all, the promise from the Lord, that the Enemy will never ultimately prevail over his Church. And so this should let us lift up our heads, and proceed to live holy lives, be undaunted witnesses for goodness and truth, and not count the costs. When we think of what St. Peter went through, and his ultimate martyrdom; when we consider all the travails of St. Paul and he too, giving his life – well, we are standing on the shoulders of these giants.
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The world today is proving to be very similar to the world of the early Church, and so our vocation as Christians in it, is to joyfully live the Faith, undaunted.
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Christ the Lord, today, gives us not only the promise of protection, but he gives us the solution also.
‘I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. ‘Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them,’ he will later say. Jesus gives the power to the Church alone, to heal the world.
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The world of the apostles was a pagan one, without light. It was the message of mercy that changed everything; that no matter what kind of lifestyle or sin or debauchery they had been living, the Son of God was calling them to repent and begin again, with the hope of Eternal Life. This will be the message that our world more and more will be needing. Perhaps it isn’t time yet, but it will be; when this adolescent world will realize the disaster of their own plan, and turn to the hope of Christ’s plan.
