Solemnity of Ss. Peter and Paul (13th Sunday of Ordinary Time) Year C
Vigil Mass
Acts 3:1-10
Psalm 19:2-3, 4-5
Galatians 1:11-20
John 21:15-19
Mass during the Day
Acts 12:1-11
Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18
Matthew 16:13-19
Celebrating the Solemnity of Ss. Peter and Paul this year is exciting. We, as Americans, can see for the first time a “direct line” of succession from the Apostles to our own land and country. All the world waited anxiously after the death of Pope Francis, the first pope from the new world, for news of the successor of St. Peter as Bishop of Rome. To everyone’s surprise, one who has connections to both South America and North America was chosen. He is “the second pope from South America” and “the first American,” and, given his work throughout the world as a missionary and his many experiences in Rome, Pope Leo XIV is truly a citizen of the world. On the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, we see the hand of God serving to unite the whole world.
Unlikely companions, a fisherman from backwater Galilee, and a rabbi among the Pharisees, schooled at the feet of the famous rabbi Gamaliel and a Roman citizen by reason of his birth in Tarsus, Peter and Paul found the purpose of their lives in the communion of faith established by the Risen Lord. Each of them followed a journey of faith and suffering that led to martyrdom in the City of Rome. Their blood, along with the blood of all the martyrs, planted the seed of faith that has grown to encompass the whole world. We are privileged to live in a time that experiences this in a profound way.
The readings offered for the Solemnity of Ss. Peter and Paul are rich in content. They present various moments of the life and ministry of the two Apostles. These give us a glimpse of how their ministries would be unified in a worldwide mission.
The first readings from the Acts of the Apostles show us Peter’s boldness and the help he received from Heaven in his witness in word and deed to the truth of Jesus’ Resurrection. The Gospels assigned to the Vigil Mass and the Mass during the day highlight the Petrine Ministry. Peter’s call to be the rock on which the Church is built (Matthew 16) and his “rehabilitation” after the denial, emphasizing the call to love and his witness to Christ by the manner of his death (John 21), are Scriptural foundations for the ongoing ministry of the Pope in our time.
Paul’s account of his ministry and call in the letters to the Galatians and to Timothy, the Bishop of Ephesus, tell of his earliest experience as a Christian and of the interior preparation for the moment when his life would be “poured out like a libation,” as he told Timothy that “the time of my departure is at hand.”
The “glorious Apostles Peter and Paul” reveal themselves to be men whose lives were transformed by Jesus Christ and by the mission entrusted to them to proclaim His Passion, Death and Resurrection to all the world. The Scriptures show their weakness and their growth in virtue and grace and conviction as they went their different ways, and as they joined one another in Rome. Their witness reminds us that God uses human beings to accomplish His purposes despite our faults and failings. It also highlights how even small decisions and moments of acknowledgment of weakness can serve to build up the kingdom.
The Solemnity of Ss. Peter and Paul is in many parts of the world “a Holy Day of Obligation.” We can miss its importance in the general calendar of the Church since it is not so in the United States. How wonderful it is that in the year when the world looks to America as the birthplace of the new Holy Father chosen by the Spirit who inspired the witness of Ss. Peter and Paul that their feast should be on a Sunday so that we join the whole world in acknowledging the ministry of the Apostles of Rome! May we continue to live as pilgrims of hope seeking unity and peace in communion with Pope Leo XIV. Ss. Peter and Paul, pray for us!