Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles: June 28/29 2025

Ordinarily, after Lent, after Easter, and after the two post, Easter solemnities of the Holy Trinity and the Body and Blood of Christ, we would be back to wearing green vestments and celebrating the 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time,

But as you can see, not this year, as we celebrate this very special feast of the Saints: Peter and Paul.

I suppose you can say this is somewhat of a banner year, in that our ordinary passing of ordinary time — is interrupted three more times with feasts we theoretically celebrate on Sunday only every 7 years:

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14th, the celebration of All Souls on November 2nd, and the feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica on November 9th.

As you know, usually it’s 20 or so straight Sundays of Ordinary Time in green, until we hit the white of Christ the King, then the purple of Advent.

So just a little heads up of the things to come.

So why this joint feast of Saints Peter and Paul? After all, if we were to consider all the apostles, and all the men and women of the first few years of leadership in the early church, we could not find two more opposite people than Peter and Paul.

To name just a few of these opposites:

Peter was married; Paul was a single man.

Peter lived and ministered mostly in and around Jerusalem. Paul was always on the road and made only rare appearances in Jerusalem.

Peter was one of the 12 Apostles named by Jesus, Paul was not.

Peter was a fisherman, meaning, in those days, he had little education. Paul was a Pharisee, meaning he was very well educated.

Peter was with Jesus from the very beginning of his ministry. Paul never knew Jesus in the flesh.

Peter would never think of rocking the boat, while Paul never let the boat be calm.

Peter had to answer the question: who do you say that I am, asked by Jesus, Paul had to answer the question: why do you persecute me?

Peter worked among the Jews, Paul among the gentiles.

About the only things these two men had in common was a name which both began with the letter P and the fact that they both believed in Jesus and were both forgiven by Jesus for having done him harm.

Why, then, does the Church give us this common feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul, throwing them together in a way they would never have chosen on their own?

I think to send the message that for the Church to have been the success it was in its earliest years, it needed both men, to stretch and to grow, to become the full Body of Christ that it was meant to be, to be truly Catholic, to be truly universal.

Without Paul, the Church probably would have remained a small sect of Jews who recognized in Jesus the promised Messiah.

But WITH Paul, the church broke out of its Jewish past and embraced all those who were willing to place their hope in Jesus as their lord and savior.

With ONLY Paul, the Church would have possibly abandoned its sense of tradition and left behind its earliest roots contained in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament.

But along WITH Peter, the Church retained the best of its roots, and became a great rock, against which the gates of the netherworld have not prevailed against in the past and will not prevail against even in the troubled times we seem to be experiencing right now.

The Church needed both Paul’s radicalness and Peter’s evenhandedness. It needed both Paul’s missionary zeal and Peter’s respect for tradition.

The early church needed both men, and those who followed them, to stretch and to grow, to become the full Body of Christ it was meant to be.

This is an important feast for us today, because it reminds us of who we are supposed to be. Because in my humble opinion, the church has lost some of its elasticity today, it seems to me as if we have become more rigid and judgmental than God ever intended the Church to be.

How easily we like to label people in the Church today, and say that one group is better than another, instead of realizing the Church needs ALL groups in order to be the full Body of Christ it was meant to be— truly universal, truly Catholic.

Those who read the National Catholic Reporter think they are more open minded than those who watch EWTN.

And those who watch EWTN think they are more traditional than those who read the National Catholic Reporter.

And both have the tendency to say because they read what they do, and think the way they do, they are more Catholic than the others. They are the true Church, the true Body of Christ, who have no need of anyone else.

But to be truly Catholic, truly universal, we need both sides to stretch and to grow to be the full Body of Christ we are called to be.

We love to label others and ourselves as either liberal or conservative, traditional or progressive, and both sides have their opinions about what the true teaching of the Second Vatican Council was, and what the Church needs to be like today.

And in our labeling, we cut each other off and we tear each other down, all the while forgetting the lesson of St. Peter and St. Paul, on their common feast day, that the Church needed BOTH of these men, and those who supported them and followed them,

to stretch and to grow, to become the full Body of Christ it was meant to be, to be truly Catholic, truly universal.

So, whether we receive Communion on the tongue or in the hands, whether kneeling at a Communion rail or standing, the Church needs us, and we are part of the Body of Christ.

Whether we prefer to spend hours on our knees in Eucharistic adoration, or hours on our feet serving the hungry in soup kitchens, the Church needs us, and we are part of the Body of Christ.

Whether we fold our hands in a certain way or not, say the Rosary or not, pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet or not, know the Bible so well we can quote scripture passages or not, dress in a certain way when we come to Mass or not, the Church needs us, AND WE ARE ALL PART OF THE BODY OF CHRIST.

It’s only when we start judging one another, tearing each other down instead of building each other up, thinking we are better than someone else because of what we read, say, do or pray, that we fail to be truly Catholic, truly universal.

The Church needs all of us, which led that liberal St. Paul to write in his letter to the Galatians: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male or female— for all are ONE in Christ.