Challenges, faith, and grace

Today’s Solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul comes on this day every year, of course, but this year, the timing has a special resonance.

On the day following this feast, the Holy Father will release a letter “to the bishops, priests, consecrated persons, and faithful laity of the Catholic Church in the People’s Republic of China” – where the Catholic Church and many other faithful Christians face imprisonment and other forms of persecution every day.

Meanwhile, in the “free world,” from Australia to Belgium, bishops and other faithful people are being called before tribunals of one sort or another simply for speaking the truth about matters of faith and of natural law.

Even some within the Church look with suspicion upon the Successor of St. Peter’s upholding of the patrimony of faith and even some entrusted with authority hint at resistance.

Indeed, the readings of today’s feast resonate strongly with the challenges of these days.

In the first reading (Acts 12:1-11), one of the Apostles has been executed and St. Peter himself has been thrown in prison.

In the second reading (2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18), St. Paul feels the weight of persecution and anticipates that his own execution is “at hand.”

And in the Gospel (Matthew 16:13-19), our Lord speaks of opposition from “the gates of the netherworld.”

Yet even as our Lord speaks of this opposition, he makes it powerfully clear that such opposition will ultimately be futile.

And so I say to you,
you are Peter,
and upon this rock
I will build my Church,
and the gates of the netherworld
shall not prevail against it

Indeed, in today’s first reading St. Peter is miraculously freed from prison, in answer to the fervent prayer of the Church.

Likewise, St. Paul is painfully aware of his travail and imminent doom, but he is even more certain of his ultimate reward and the success of his mission (“that... the proclamation might be completed”):


I am already being poured out like a libation,
and the time of my departure is at hand.
I have competed well;
I have finished the race;
I have kept the faith.
From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me,
which the Lord, the just judge,
will award to me on that day,
and not only to me,
but to all who have longed for his appearance.

The Lord stood by me
and gave me strength,
so that through me
the proclamation might be completed
and all the Gentiles might hear it.
And I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.

The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat
and will bring me safe to his heavenly Kingdom.
To him be glory forever and ever.
Amen.

By the grace of God,
may you and I be worthy
to make St. Paul’s words our own.