Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons: 29 June 2025

Icon depicting the Apostles Peter and Paul Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens 1-15-2023

Solemnity of St Peter and St Paul
Peter and Paul, friends of Jesus and ourselves

Forgive me a personal start to my reflection this week! Many of you who read my weekly reflection will know that I transferred from the Latin rite as a monk-priest, to help an Eastern Catholic community the UK, a desire partly underpinned by Erga Migrantes Caritas Christi, and instruction of 2004 on pastoral care of migrant communities including those of our Eastern Catholic communities, and it has become for me a vocation of within a vocation. The treasury of opening out to others our Eastern Catholic tradition has been something I have involved myself with for over four decades. But it hasn't been an easy calling. A lot of the time one is on one's own when it comes to support, the structures available to others are not often there, particularly as one grows older. In one sense it is an ecumenical vocation of quiet white martyrdom, and one turns frequently to seek help and assistance from those who connect with us in spirit and prayer.

So on a very personal level this great feast of Peter and Paul is for me the recognition, through these two saints, of those of us who are members of the eastern Catholic community as full, significant and foundational parts of the Church. Peter and Paul are the friends of us all, their journey begins and is formed in the friendship of Jesus and his companions in the lands of the East. Later in response to his voice to share the friendship he has with them in ministry and mission, we find that they meet their death traditionally in Rome which is why they are honoured on this day. They are part of the link of love with Christ that binds us together, East and West!

On another level this feast is also a celebration of the aging process of each one of us, and a reminder of the simplicity of our faith which comes to us through experience as we grow older, there is always something important for us all in the shared wisdom of the elders, which can show different insights, ways and understandings of the Christ to those younger members of our Church.

The readings from both the Vigil and Mass of the Day set Peter and Paul, not in the youthfulness of an early ministry, but in the tiredness of a life spent in service and love of the Lord. They offer us several key pointers for a developing a helpful spirituality for the elderly in our community, a way of faith that helps us simplify our relationship with each other and Christ.

Relationship with Christ and the call to give of self in love

If we take the readings from the Vigil Mass we are handed a framework for our later stages of faith. Paul in the second reading gives us both a time and a situation where he is on his own, struggling to come to terms with his vision of Christ and his conversion. He tells us that it came directly from meeting Christ himself: "the gospel preached by me is not of human origin. For I did not receive it from a human being, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ." (Gal 1:11,12) This is a reminder that conversion of life is something we are called to every day, namely to be open to the Word and grace of God in our encounters and moments.

But Paul also reminds us that faith isn't about a light bulb flash, rather it is a gradual reflection that takes place over time, based on a happening, a relationship that is personal with Christ, which is slowly percolating into our lives.

We find Paul was in Arabia, Damascus, and Jerusalem, all of which are foundational places for our faith, all of which are important for our eastern Catholic communities today.

The Gospel of John takes us to that moment of love where three times Peter is asked if he loves Jesus and then is told to reach out from this relationship to care for the Christ present in others: "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep." (Jn 21 : 17) For us this is a recognition that we too can make a mess of our relationship with the Lord at times, but he will always call us back to find him and love him-and then find his face in those we meet. As if this love isn't enough, Peter again shows us the graciousness of faith in our actions.

When we think we have little to give, as people do as they age, he shows us that we have something precious, our friendship with Christ, which allows us to reach out in a loving way for God. Acts 3 tells us that the Christ will reach out through us if we allow Him to do so, we may think we have little but through us the immensity of God's love flows : "But Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, "Look at us." He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.* Peter said, "I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarean, [rise and] walk."(Acts 3: 4-6)

Angels in disguise; we keep faith with Christ and run the race to its ending

The readings for the Mass of the Day build up on this relationship with Christ. The freeing of Peter from prison by an angel is in the words of Acts 1, a real event - and a reminder to us that amongst us the angels work, they come in various guises most often in others goodness, for we act as angels, messengers of love in word and deed, freeing others from their chains - and this is a characteristic the elderly can share with those caught up in cycles of addiction, weighed down by life or simply depressed. To free others is to help lift them up and share with them the inner love that is ours to give .

Paul in the second reading shows us our ending to come, one that is, yes, the tiredness of all who have lived, cared, loved and served to the end, but also an ending that is of great hope for us, there is a prize to be taken by each one of us from the Lord Jesus himself: "I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearance". (2 Tim 4: 7,8)

Rooted in that statement is the important point that faith is not abstract, it is a reality based in the love of Jesus himself, who will ask each of us when we meet him, not only "who do you say I am, but do you love me!" The words Jesus says to Peter in the gospel go beyond the immediate meaning. Jesus says: "And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it".(Mt 16: 18)

We are friends of Jesus and of Peter and Paul

Jesus means so much more, Peter is a shaky foundation, so are we, the Church is not made of saints but sinners on the way to becoming saints, the rock is not only Peter it is each one of us and lasts as a foundation for creating that community of love with Jesus and others until our very last day.

We rejoice in this feast as one that holds up for us a vocation of aging, of one in which the best thing we can share is a friendship with Christ.

As Pope Leo XIV said to the gathering of priests this week: "We aren't perfect, but we are friends of Christ, and that's enough!"

May these two apostles, patrons of the whole Catholic Church ,help us, through their friendship with Jesus, to grow old in the simplicity of loving friendship with Christ.