Room for Us All

Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul – two men to whom God entrusted large parts of the early Church, and two men that did not always see eye to eye. 

Today’s readings demonstrate their similarities. They both sacrificed their lives in service of spreading the Gospel: Peter, imprisoned for his belief in Christ, and Paul, “being poured out like a libation” – which, in Greek beliefs and culture, was a sacrificial drink for the gods. Both men knew, as Paul writes, “the time of my departure is at hand.” And both men had a deep faith in Jesus Christ – Paul, stating “the Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe to his heavenly Kingdom” and Peter, telling Jesus that despite what everyone else thinks, he believes, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

God entrusted each of these men to bring Jesus’s message to a different population: Paul largely preached to the Gentiles, and Peter to the Jews. And that difference in pastoral focus sometimes brought tension, such as the debate about whether Gentile converts to Christianity needed to be circumcised. This debate is chronicled in Galatians 2, in which Paul writes that he “opposed [Peter] to his face because he clearly was wrong”.

Now, this is just one translation (NABRE), and a footnote tells me the text would literally read “stood condemned”, because Peter was acting hypocritically – eating with Gentiles when no Jews were around, but then separating himself for fear of judgment when the Jews came. But I have to say that I chuckled when I read that line, because it had echoes of conversations we hear all of the time in our polarized country and Church.

These men had very different paths – Peter walked side by side with Jesus during his earthly ministry, while Paul converted after seeing a vision of the risen Christ. Peter had plenty of missteps along the way, and Paul had previously been persecuting Christians. Neither man was perfect. But both men believed in what they were doing, and both men were given a particular mission.

I love the fact that these two share a feast day. I do not know if they would have loved to know that this would happen. And I think this is why they are the saints that we need today. 

Perhaps we can ask them to pray for us to find ways to work together with people we think are "clearly wrong” – or at least to understand them a little bit better. Perhaps they can help us believe that the coworker who is driving us crazy is also doing what they truly think is best. And perhaps they can help us to remember that the Church is big enough for all of our diverse opinions and experiences, and that God may have even designed it that way.

Today's Readings