Preaching at Holy Trinity, Tarleton on June 29th, Br Adrain OSB (Mucknell Abbey)said “In both Peter and Paul we have examples to follow but not just in the way some folk look at saints as people to copy. More importantly it is the mode of their transformations from bad zeal to good zeal”.
Having opened by thanking the Rector on his 25th Anniversary of Priesting for Fr Mark’s part in his vocational journey and that of others, Br Adrain continued by saying:
Today we commemorate the martyrdom of two great saints and foundation stones of the church Sts Peter and Paul. The Collect says that we should come to follow their example, so what is this example?
Today I want to look at what scripture says about these two saints. I want to tease out what that example is that we should follow and look at the transformation that occurs in Peter and Paul and what that means for us today.
In the 2nd reading we heard St Paul say to Timothy near the end of his life
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
In another Epistle to the Philippians he makes clear what this fight, this race is Iwant to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
And with such a glorious goal to aim at now completed lets look back at Paul’s life and see what led to such glory.
In the book of Acts we encounter him as Saul, the Pharisee. A man full of Zeal for God, prepared to persecute followers of Jesus.
He has an overwhelming conversion event on the way to Damascus and through it begins a transformation.
His zeal was not given up but transformed so that with his strong character he was able to spread the Gospel to those who had no knowledge of Jesus.
God initiated an action and Saul became Paul. God intervened and set in train a set of events that led to the whole of Europe coming to relationship with Christ…..
It is important to take a moment to reflect on the importance of what I have just said.
God intervened, God initiated an action and Paul responded. It is through his intervention in human history that God reveals himself and it is through our response and visible transformation that God becomes known to others.
Having so ardently opposed the new faith Paul now proclaims the Gospel with the same zeal. Willing to undergo persecutions, the arguments, the squabbles, the betrayals of his friends. All so that he could come to know Christ whose love had been revealed.
It is the attentiveness to the signs of transformation through love in each other that most loudly proclaims God’s Love and his existence.
It is through this love that others come to say, see how they love one another, and so become joined to Christ themselves.
It is good to ask ourselves sometimes, how attentive are we? Are we truly open to that transforming love?
If our answers are largely no we can get hope from St Peter.
Peter the Apostle, the one who proclaimed Jesus the son of God and yet did not trust him when he walked on the Sea. Peter who said he would die with Jesus yet denied him three times. That same Peter who once Jesus had died locked himself in the upper room too scared to venture out, not able to trust in the resurrection.
This impetuous, often cowardly Peter is the one Christ proclaimed as the rock upon which I will build my church and who we revere as a saint today.
So what is it about Peter that in spite of all his frailties and incompetencies led Christ to have such trust in him?
I think the clue is Peter says he is prepared to die with Jesus.
I don’t know about you but quite often I say things that I genuinely am prepared to do in my heart there is a love there that means I desperately want to act but then when it comes to it a fear overtakes me and I am unable to do it. It doesn’t negate the genuineness of the love but that the fear was greater.
I believe that, this great love that Peter had was why Jesus put such trust in him, indeed Jesus in rebuke to Peter says the heart is willing but the Flesh is weak. And again by the seashore that he would share in the sufferings of Christ but he wasn’t ready yet.
Peter’s love, although veiled in fear and detached from his impetuosity, was none the less true and it is such love that can indeed be the rock on which the church is built.
This is why Jesus challenges Peter three times by the sea asking him do you love me? Peter’s journey in Christ led him from fear to the love that led to martyrdom in Rome. So at the end he could join with Paul that he had fought the great fight and had completed the race.
Love had conquered fear, his whole person had been transformed. Not losing any of himself but having his impetuosity used to fortify an unselfish love for Christ and his flock.
In both Peter and Paul we have examples to follow but not just in the way some folk look at saints as people to copy. More importantly it is the mode of their transformations from bad zeal to good zeal, from fear to love and in their perseverance in the faith when the pressures they faced could easily have led them to denounce Christ. Perhaps what we should emulate are these transformations where we see Christ’s work clearly and in their perseverance in the quest of love.
Paul and Peter, a tent maker and a fisherman also give us much hope. They were not perfect copies of our Lord, they were obstinate, arrogant, strong willed zealots, cowardly, incompetent.
None of these characteristics point to superman.
They point to people just like us who were transformed yet not diminished nor indeed did they lose these less desirable traits.
They were transformed by the love of Christ and that same transformation is happening in us today as long as we remain attentive to it.
St Benedict says about this attentiveness to the fostering of love that the way is narrow at the outset but that if we persevere in this way of life and in faith, we shall run on the path of God’s commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love.
So Let’s try to persevere in our faith, and in building up our relationships with each other. For in doing that we are building our relationship in Christ and we become signs of Christ’s grace at work. and with Peter can say:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.
This is the promise, and it will be fulfilled. This is the race Peter and Paul have now completed let us in our sufferings and joys in this life persevere so we too may be transformed and come to fullness of life in Christ.
And to him be all Glory and praise.
Amen
