Feast of St Peter & St Paul

Today’s feast of the great apostles, Peter and Paul, brings to a close the Year of Saint Paul, during which the Church reflected in depth on the teaching and life of the ‘Apostle of the Gentiles’, and the continuing relevance of Paul for believers today.
From earliest times in her worship the Church has never separated these two specially chosen preachers of God’s word. The story of Peter’s release from prison, as recorded in our first reading, shows how God protects someone to whom he has entrusted a unique role in the story of our salvation. The fisherman from Galilee would bear witness to his Lord in Rome, imitating him by dying on a cross. Scripture never attempts to conceal Peter’s failings, yet the end of his life demonstrated the triumph of divine grace. Our own faults and occasional lapses should never
disconcert us. As with Peter, Christ always gives us another chance.
The apostle Paul has left the Church a rich legacy in the letters he composed to the various churches, and these letters have proved to be source of instruction and encouragement for the last two thousand years. Paul’s experience was unusual, starting with his unique conversion and his vision of the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. From that moment Jesus Christ was at the centre of Paul’s teaching and preaching, as his writings so clearly testify. His privileged position as a chosen apostle did not spare Paul from the trials and tribulations of life. He uses a vivid phrase when he describes how on occasion he was ‘delivered from the mouth of the lion’, no doubt referring to some kind of mortal peril in which he found himself because of the gospel of Christ. Paul’s complete trust in Christ, the Son of God, serves as a model for every Christian. Reassuring is his belief that it is whenever we are conscious of our human weakness, then the power of God continues to shine forth in our lives.
The yearly celebration of the feast of Peter and Paul ought to remind us of the foundation on which our faith rests: the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This was Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi, a confession which has been the hallmark of our faith for two thousand years. Paul, in different language, subscribed fully to that same confession, and came to know Jesus as the pre-existing Son of the Father who assumed the condition of a servant here on earth to redeem the human race. Our debt to these two great saints is considerable and we rightly honour them today. May Christ be at the centre of our Christian living, as he was for Peter and
Paul, and let us imitate their faith with conviction by likewise proclaiming, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!’

+Michael Campbell OSA
Bishop of Lancaster

(from the Diocesan website)