Saint Peter and Saint Paul

Today we celebrate a double feast, the two most important apostles, saint Peter and saint Paul. We have two other feasts for each saint, the conversion of saint Paul and the chair of saint Peter. Why do we put them together in one feast? Because some people wanted to separate them, to oppose one against the other, to create a conflict. The devil loves confussion and disunity to do his work. Peter preached to the Jews and Paul to the gentiles. At the beginning of the Church there was a danger of schism, a separation between both groups, mainly from the Jews, demanding the gentiles to follow Jewish customs. Both apostles managed to keep the Church together.

If you go to saint Peter’s basilica in Rome, in front of the facade you will see two big marble statues, much bigger than a life size, five metres tall, saint Peter with the keys and saint Paul with the book and the sword. Even though it is a church built on top of saint Peter’s tomb, the popes wanted to emphasise the collaboration between both, as the two foundational stones on where Jesus’ Church is built. Saint Peter with his keys opens the doors of heaven for us, and saint Paul teaches the faith with his book, and defends and enlarges the Christian community with his sword.

These are the traditional symbols of these two saints. Saint Peter keeps two keys in his hand, one silver plated and the other gold plated. The golden one aludes to the power in heaven; the silver one signifies the authority on earth. You can see both keys in the pope’s coat of arms. Saint Paul holds in his right hand a long sword for two reasons: first, he was beheaded by a sword, the instrument of his martyrdom, and secondly, the sword signifies the Word of God, of which Paul was a tireless preacher. We say that Sacred Scripture is a double edged sword, that penetrates our souls and cuts through our excuses and sins. A double edged sword is very dangerous: you can injure others, but also hurt yourself. It has a doubled effect.

Saint Peter is the first apostle and saint Paul is the one who did most for the Church, to expand and develop it. Both were martyred in Rome. We have another basilica in Rome dedicated to saint Paul, the second largest church after saint Peter’s, outside the walls of the city. There you can see a unique series of portraits in mosaic of all the popes from Peter to the present holder of the office. It is customary for the church to shine a spotlight on the portrait of the present pope.

The first reading of the Mass comes from the Acts of the apostles were saint Peter heals a man paralytic from birth. The second reading is from the letter of saint Paul to the Galatians, where he explains that after his conversion, he went to Jerusalem to talk to Peter. The Gospel narrates the scene where Jesus asked Peter, after the second miraculous catch of fish, if he loved him more than the others. Both apostles loved Jesus so much to the point of giving up their lives for him.

josephpich@gmail.com