Reflection From

Fr. Davis

June 29, 2025

This weekend we celebrate the great Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, the apostolic pillars of our Catholic tradition of faith, who gave monumental and historic witness to Christ by their preaching and by their embrace of a martyr’s crown in Rome.

Peter has traditionally represented the organizational church with its structure and hierarchy. Our blessed Lord once said to him, “you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of the netherworld will never prevail against it” (Mt.16:18). Paul has traditionally represented the Church and its many charisms, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which build up the ecclesial community (1 Cor.12). Peter initially represented the many first Jewish converts. Paul, on the other hand, advocated the welcome, too, of the gentile community into the Christian faith. The Church in its diversity and universal appeal, would not be what it is today, if it were not for these great men of conviction. Both men gave their lives for the faith at the hands of the Roman Empire.

After having denied the Lord three times around the charcoal fire while Jesus was being arrested and condemned, Peter could never have imagined what he would later be called to do, in witnessing to Christ, leading the Church as its first pope, and being crucified upside down, as Rome mocked the Christian faith. Paul, after having persecuted and killed some of the members of the early Christian community, could never have imagined becoming the apostle to the gentiles, being arrested, and taken in hand cuffs by boat from Caesarea Maritime en route to Rome where he himself would be condemned and beheaded by imperial capital punishment.

These are the men who shed their blood for the cause of Christ and blazed the trail for the Christian faith to eventually take hold of an entire civilization, causing the Roman Empire to fall, and supplanting it with faith in the risen Christ. Even today in Rome, two of the major patriarchal basilicas in the city are dedicated to these men and their foundational witness to Christ. Saint Peter’s Basilica and its famously iconic dome are built right over top of the burial place of Simon Peter. The fragments and dust of his decayed bones are encased below the high altar under Bernini’s historic and pillared baldachin. At the Church of Saint Paul outside the walls of ancient Rome, underneath the high altar can be found relics of this august and courageous apostolic preacher. Rome itself, therefore, witnesses to the impact of these men, who were and are anchors of the faith and pillars of the Church.

Reflecting on them both this weekend, the Church invites all of us, members of the believing community, to treasure their apostolic witness and the unique gifts they brought to their service of Christ and His Church. The truth is, the Church would not be what it is today without them both. Throughout history we have needed the Petrine dimension. We have also needed the Pauline dimension. Structure and charisms. Jewish and gentile. Hierarchy and ministerial service. All animated by the Holy Spirit. Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Father Davis

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