Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles
I want to share two stories with you. When I was at home last month was also the time when Pope Francis was also returning from his trip to the Middle East. On the flight he gave an interview to reporters and one of the topics that came up was clerical celibacy. The media in India reported the Pope’s response widely. When I came down for breakfast that morning, my father said to me, “Pope Francis says that priests can get married.” I was very measured in my response lest my father think that I have a secret girlfriend in distant America. I learnt later that the Pope had said, “It [celibacy] is a rule of life that I appreciate very much, and I think it is a gift for the church, but since it is not a dogma, the door is always open." The Pope was merely reiterating the well-known Catholic position that clerical celibacy is not divine law. It was promulgated after the 10th Century and Church could change that law if that is where she discerned the Holy Spirit was guiding her. If she wants to do that she has the depth of history, theology and tradition to make a sound decision.
Here is my second story.
I was on my way to the cemetery for a funeral. Driving the hearse was this young lady who was also preparing for her upcoming wedding. She told me that her brother was going to officiate at the wedding. When I asked her if her brother was a Catholic priest or a pastor, she laughed. She told me that he was financial advisor but that he was taking a six-month online course to become a pastor. Part of me was very upset because I compared this to the twelve years in the seminary to be a pastor. And here is someone who can do the same online in six months. What depth, tradition, history or theology will he have?
I shared these two stories because today is the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. Even though the feast is dedicated to their name, this is really the feast of the Church founded by Jesus Christ. This is the same Jesus Christ and who also called Peter and Paul to serve his Church. The feast of these two men is relevant only in the context of the Church whom which they served.
1) Peter and Paul: Two Sides of the Same Coin. Based on today’s gospel reading, the primacy of Peter among the other disciples is indisputable. The gospel of Matthew was written at least 30 years after the death of Jesus. By this time Peter had already been martyred. The passage we have today (“upon this rock I will build my Church”), suggests that by about 65 AD, the tradition of the primacy of Peter is firmly established. Paul too was martyred by this time. Even though Paul was not among the twelve, Paul called himself and apostle. He was responsible for the spread of Christianity to practically every corner of the Roman Empire. In spite of the primacy of Peter, Paul writings are more dominant in the New Testament, clearly he was more instrumental in the development of early Christian doctrine, and he is even shown to challenge Peter’s ambiguous stand on the conversion of Gentiles to Christianity. By celebrating the feast of Peter and Paul together, I think the church is saying the these two apostles who differed so radically in the way they were called, in their conversion, in their thought, their theology and their understanding of the Church, are two sides of the same coin. Peter, the uneducated fisherman, was more reliant on Jewish history, heritage and scripture and cautious about the future in making decisions about Gentile converts. Paul, on the other hand, who was deeply educated in Jewish history, heritage and scripture, was more cautious about tradition and more adventurous in opening the church to the Gentiles. These two men, however, were united in one thing: their willingness to sacrifice their lives for the one who called them – Jesus Christ. Today’s church is no different than the early Christian church. Clearly like Peter and Paul, there are those who, like Peter, want more rely heavily on tradition and be cautious about the future and there are those who to want to take tradition seriously yet be more open to the newer issues facing the Church. The Pope’s past interviews with the media are an indication of the issues that face us – married clergy, the protection of children, the role of women in the church, gay and lesbian Catholics, marriage and family, and unbridled free market economy. As you know, in the church today, there are many convictions about what to do with these issues: those who want change and those who don’t; those who favor tradition more heavily and those who favor development of doctrine more heavily. I think, like Peter and Paul, these two sides are two sides of the same coin. What we do not want to be is to be so extreme on either side that we cannot talk to each other, or fail to love Christ and his Church above all!
2) Models of the Church: A way to Understand the Church. What should the Church be today, in light of its challenges? I would like to answer this question using the writing of one of the foremost theologian-Cardinals of our time – Cardinal Avery Dulles. He was not a bishop but in 2001, Pope John Paul II made him a cardinal. He is most well-known for his book, The Models of the Church. In this book he outlines five ways of conceiving the Church: The Church as Institution; as Mystical Communion; as Sacrament; as Herald; and as Servant. The institutional model stresses the role of the leaders, of structures, of doctrine, stability and continuity. In the mystical communion model, the church is thought of as a community or a family, with Christ at the center. "In the Sacrament model the Church is thought of as a kind of sacrament which brings intimate union between God and the world. In the Herald model the mission of the Church is to proclaim what it has heard, believed and been commissioned to proclaim. The Church as herald is to proclaim the Word of God to the whole world with integrity and persistence. In the Servant model, the Church like Christ, who came not to be served but to serve, strives to serve. The Servant Church in her proclamation and her actions continues of reconciliation, of binding up wounds, of suffering service, of healing like Jesus, the suffering servant. However, these models are not exclusive of each other. However, at different time of the history of the Church, different models have guided the church more strongly than others. Perhaps under Benedict XVI, the institutional model was more dominant and under Pope Francis, the Mystical Communion and Servant models are more dominant. Yet, none of these Popes threw away all the other models. I think the challenge for the church and all of us is to be all these models at the same time. As we know from the lives of Peter and Paul, this is more easily said than done.
3) What does this feast mean for us today? This feast is very relevant if we love the Church. I think it is important to remember where Peter and Paul came from to see our role in the Church. If Jesus had given me the responsibility to choose the apostles, I would not choose Peter or Paul. For that matter, I would not choose myself. Peter was impetuous, flaky, unreliable, and unable to handle crisis. Paul was too erudite, too proud of his race, and a murderer. God called these men who perhaps human eyes would not consider worthy to be the first among equals. This should make all of us tremble with awe. This tells us that God is still in charge of God’s Church. This tells us the even our first Pope and the greatest apostle were flawed people whom God called and then graced to become God’s powerful instruments. Perhaps today we need to be very grateful to God for calling us to belong to the Church and having graced us to be Christ’s witnessed. We must thank God for the Bible, our tradition, our history, our doctrines, our theology and worship. But then, we must do like with one eye on the future. We must keep the doors of the Church always open. Based on our own history and tradition, are there people we want to reject, to exclude, judge and condemn? What if God is calling them like he called his twelve apostles? Who are the ones we consider unworthy to be in the church today? What would Jesus do?
As we bring the bread and wine to celebrate this Eucharist, let us remember that this Eucharist is our gift from God and is the life of the Church. As we participate in the life of Christ, may the church become more and more like Christ. Amen.
Fr. Satish Joseph