Gospel & Reflection for the Feast of Ss. Peter & Paul 2025
Matthew 16:13‐19
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said ‘the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’
Reflection
Friends, of all the legendary figures to come out of the American West, none embodied the dreams of their respective peoples more completely than General George Armstrong Custer and the Sioux Indian, Crazy Horse. Though they had no way of knowing it, their lives had been converging for years. They collided eventually in spectacular fashion at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and their names are forever etched in the imagination not just of Americans, but of all people.
These two men, Crazy Horse and Custer, had so much in common. They were both the same age, were unswerving in their devotion to their people; and loving war, they both rose quickly to become leaders of men at a young age. They were also great riders, enthralled with hunting. They adored the great plains; they would be in a state of ecstasy when they were on the plains, riding their horses and chasing buffalo.
And yet, they were so completely different.
Crazy Horse was in a state of being. He did not want change. He thought the life he was leading was the perfect life, he just wanted to continue to be able to lead it. Custer, on the other hand, had that American quality of always being in a state of becoming. He was always reaching out for something in the future, something bigger and better, more prestige, more power, more recognition. Crazy Horse did not want to be better. He just wanted to be.
We celebrate this weekend the Feast of Ss. Peter and Paul, two great pillars of the Church. Like Crazy Horse and Custer, Peter and Paul were quite different also but ended up having much in common. Peter was an uneducated, poor, hardworking fisherman from Galilee. Paul was from the university city of Tarsus, an educated, well-to-do, zealous Pharisee, intent on destroying the name and the followers of Christ. Their lives had been converging too, and it was Christ, who both changed and brought their lives together.
Jesus called Peter away from his nets and family and asks him to be the ‘rock’ on which His church would be built. Peter accepts the call and through fear and humility becomes the ‘rock’ that Christ wanted him to be. Paul is called in a thunderous vision, the Lord striking him to the ground and halting forever his ambition for greatness and recognition. He calls Paul to be the Apostle to the Nations. No longer the inflictor, he becomes the inflicted for Christ; gladly suffering much in bringing Jesus’ name to the pagans. Many years later and a long way from Galilee and Tarsus, Peter and Paul end up in Rome together, and under the viciousness of the psychotic Emperor Nero, they were martyred for Christ. Peter was crucified upside down, while Paul was beheaded.
We celebrate these two men not for the great things they did, but for the people they were through Christ. They learned to live in a state of being, not in a state of becoming; a being that was continually defined and transformed by their relationship with Christ.
This is the lesson for us today.
The world tells us that we must constantly reach out for something bigger and better in the future. Society encourages us to climb ladders and to hustle for all our worth. It pressures us into creating a certain image to make ourselves more appealing. It tells us we can choose our own gender or even identify as an animal if we so wish. It prioritises emotions over truth. Society pretends that life has value, yet legislates to end life before birth, and after birth to intentionally intervene and end life prematurely. It is all about what we can become, what we want to become, regardless of how we become it or what the consequences are.
Faith tells us something more truthful and freeing: our worth is not in what we can become—it is in our being, it is whom we already are in Christ – baptised, beloved, redeemed. Peter and Paul show us that holiness and happiness are about staying rooted in whom we are in Christ. They did not live to become someone else; they lived to be what they already were: children of God, servants of the Gospel, witnesses of the Resurrection.
So, let us never worry then about who we are to become. Let us rejoice in whom we are – children of God – and only in God do we find the peace of being, and the courage to witness to that beautiful truth.
Fr. Richard
