Homily of the Pope on the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul 2021
Two great Apostles, Apostles of the Gospel, and columns of the Church: Peter and Paul. Today we celebrate his memory. Let’s take a close look at these two witnesses to the faith. At the center of their story are not their abilities, but rather at the center is the encounter with Christ that changed their lives. They experienced a love that healed and set them free, and thus they became apostles and ministers of deliverance to others.
Peter and Paul are free only because they were freed . Let’s stop at this central point.
Peter, the fisherman from Galilee, was freed first of all from the feeling of inadequacy and the bitterness of failure, and this happened thanks to the unconditional love of Jesus. Although he was an expert fisherman, several times, in the middle of the night, he experienced the bitter taste of defeat for not having caught anything (cf. Lk 5,5; Jn 21,5) and, faced with the empty nets, he was tempted to abandon it everything. Despite being strong and impetuous, he was often carried away by fear (cf. Mt 14:30). Although he was a passionate disciple of the Lord, he continued to reason according to the world, without being able to understand and accept the meaning of the cross of Christ (cf. Mt16.22). Although he said that he was willing to give his life for Him, it was enough to feel that they suspected that he was one of their own to get scared and even deny the Master (cf. Mk 14,66-72).
Yet Jesus freely loved him and bet on him. He encouraged him not to give up, to throw his nets back into the sea, to walk on the water, to look with courage at his own weakness, to follow him on the way of the cross, to give his life for his brothers, to feed his sheep. . In this way he freed him from fear, from calculations based solely on human security, from worldly concerns, giving him the courage to risk everything and the joy of feeling like a fisher of men. And he called him precisely to confirm his brothers in the faith (cf. Lk 22:32 ). To him he gave – as we have heard in the Gospel – the keys to open the doors that lead to the encounter with the Lord and the power to bind and loose: to bind the brothers to Christ and to untie the knots and chains of their lives (cf. .Mt 16:19).
All of this was possible only because – as the first reading tells us – Peter was the first to be freed. The chains that held him prisoner were broken and, as had happened on the night that the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt, he was asked to get up quickly, put on his belt and tie his sandals in order to leave. . And the Lord opened the doors wide for him (cf. Acts 12 : 7-10). It is a new story of opening, of liberation, of broken chains, of leaving the captivity that it holds. Peter had the Passover experience: the Lord delivered him.
Also the apostle Paul experienced the deliverance of Christ. He was freed from the most oppressive bondage, that of his ego. And from Saul, the name of the first king of Israel, became Paul, which means “little.” He was also freed from the religious zeal that had made him a fierce defender of the traditions he had received (cf. Gal 1,14) and a violent persecutor of Christians. He was released. The formal observance of religion and the swashbuckling defense of tradition, instead of opening him up to the love of God and his brothers, made him rigid: he was a fundamentalist. God saved him from this, but did not spare him many weaknesses and difficulties that made his evangelizing mission more fruitful: the fatigue of the apostolate, physical illness (cf. Ga4,13-14), violence, persecution, shipwrecks, hunger and thirst, and – as he himself recounted – a thorn that tormented him in the flesh (cf. 2 Cor 12,7-10).
Thus, Paul understood that “God chose the weak in the world to confuse the strong” ( 1 Cor 1,27), that we can do all things in him who strengthens us (cf. Phil 4,13), that nothing can separate us from his love (cf. Rm 8,35-39). For this reason, at the end of his life – as the second reading tells us – Paul was able to say: “the Lord assisted me” and “he will continue to deliver me from every evil work” ( 2 Tim 4:17). Paul had the Passover experience: the Lord delivered him.
Dear brothers and sisters, the Church looks at these two giants of faith and sees two Apostles who released the power of the Gospel in the world, only because before they were released by their encounter with Christ. He did not judge them, he did not humiliate them, but rather shared his life with affection and closeness, supporting them with his own prayer and sometimes reprimanding them to move them to change. To Peter, Jesus says tenderly: “I have prayed for you so that you will not lose your faith” ( Lk 22:32 ), to Paul he asks: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” ( Acts 9.4). Jesus does the same with us: he assures us of his closeness by praying for us and interceding with the Father, and gently rebukes us when we make mistakes, so that we can find the strength to get up and resume our journey.
Touched by the Lord, we too are liberated. We always need to be liberated, because only a free Church is a credible Church. Like Pedro, we are called to free ourselves from the feeling of defeat in the face of our fishing, sometimes unsuccessful; to free ourselves from the fear that immobilizes us and makes us fearful, locking us in our securities and taking away the courage of prophecy. Like Paul, we are called to be free from the hypocrisies of exteriority, to be free from the temptation to impose ourselves with the strength of the world instead of with the weakness that allows God, free from a religious observance that makes us rigid and inflexible, free from ambiguous ties to power and the fear of being misunderstood and attacked.
Peter and Paul give us the image of a Church entrusted to our hands, but led by the Lord with fidelity and tenderness – it is He who guides the Church; of a weak Church, but strong by the presence of God; the image of a liberated Church that can offer the world the liberation that it cannot give itself: liberation from sin, from death, from resignation, from the feeling of injustice, from the loss of hope, which debases the lives of women. women and men of our time.
Let us ask ourselves today, in this celebration and after it, let us ask ourselves, how much need for liberation do our cities, our societies, our world have? How many chains must be broken and how many barred doors must be opened! We can be collaborators in this liberation, but only if we first let ourselves be liberated by the novelty of Jesus and walk in the freedom of the Holy Spirit.
Today our brother archbishops receive the pallium. This sign of unity with Peter recalls the mission of the shepherd who gives his life for the flock. By giving his life, the pastor, freed from himself, becomes an instrument of liberation for his brothers. Today we are accompanied by the Delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, sent for this occasion by our dear brother Bartolomé: your pleasant presence is a precious sign of unity on the path of liberation from the distances that scandalously divide believers in Christ. Thank you for your presence.
We pray for you, for the pastors, for the Church, for all of us so that, freed by Christ, we may be apostles of liberation throughout the world.
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