Today we celebrate two great pillars in our Church. St. Paul is our greatest missionary and evangelizer and St. Peter is the first pope, if you will. Both men are martyrs; St. Paul was beheaded on Appian Way under the order of Nero and St. Peter was crucified upside down also under the order of Nero. Both men were so important to the early Church; it may not have survived without them. The amazing thing about both men is that they were quite different in personality, education, and even status. If someone were to venture a guess whom God would have chosen to be his pillars for the Church I wonder if any one of us would have chosen Peter and Paul.
Let’s take a look at both men and see who they were. St. Paul from what we know was from Tarsus, he was born a Jew but he was also a Roman citizen, scholars believe that was the case through his father. Later on Paul would use his citizenship to his advantage especially when he demanded that he be tried as a Roman citizen with full rights under the law, it bought him time, time to go to Rome and evangelize there while under house arrest.
Paul described himself as Hebrew, as a Pharisee, and one who advanced in Judaism beyond many of his peers. Paul was a very educated man, a scholar of the law and also very well respected among his peers. Paul never met Jesus during Jesus’ ministry, we are not even sure what Paul may have known about Jesus, but after the resurrection Paul knew enough in his mind that the newly formed Christians were a threat to Judaism. Paul was commissioned to investigate Christians and to bring them to justice and if need be to execution as heretics, as was the case when Paul took part in the execution of St. Stephen one of the first deacons of the Church.
When Paul was traveling to investigate more Christians on his way to Damascus, he received a Divine revelation from Jesus, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me, Paul asks, “Who are you Sir” From that conversation forward St. Paul would begin life as a Christian, a man who would give us almost half the New Testament, make three long missionary journeys and help shape Christianity forever.
St. Peter had a much different upbringing as he came from a family of fishermen (from Bethsaida) who were part of the working class and not well educated, though even the uneducated would have been familiar with their religious traditions and Scripture. From the accounts of his life we believe that Peter was a married man who had a family, especially since the Gospels tell us that Jesus cured his mother-in-law. Peter had his name changed, originally he was Simon, but in Matthew 16:16-19 Peter becomes the first of the Apostles (Bishops) when Jesus calls him, “Rock,” i.e. Peter.
It is amazing that Jesus would have chosen an uneducated fisherman from Bethsaida to be the first pope for all intents and purposes. Peter was one of those guys who spoke before he would think and this got him into trouble quite a few times, especially when Jesus rebuked him by saying, “Get behind me Satan.”
Nevertheless, Peter’s witness in Jerusalem, Antioch, and eventually Rome helped to shape the early Church and give it life. I am sure that Peter had to deal with a great deal amount of change in his life that of his own religious customs to adapting to foreign regions in which he lived. Like Paul, Peter offered the final and greatest witness to Jesus by offering his life in the faith.
No one could guess that a man who was having Christians brought to trial and executed along with a poor fisherman would be the ones chosen by God to lead His people. They were ordinary men, but they had extraordinary hearts filled with love for their brothers and sisters. You and I are ordinary people, but like Peter and Paul we too have been chosen for some reason\s to carry out the Gospel. Do not sell yourselves short, we too can be like Peter and Paul, saints. God can take the most ordinary of us and make us extraordinary; it’s a matter of belief. Paul believed it and so did Peter, the question that remains is, “Do you believe it?”
PS. I did a play on words in the title, "Kepha" is the Aramaic translation for "Peter," "et" is the Latin translation for "and"
"Paulos" is the Greek Translation for "Paul" I chose Aramaic, Latin, and Greek to cover the languages of the Church, I know the Church speaks one language but these were the prevailing languages at the time of Peter and Paul, signifying that Christianity is a religion of unity and "Oneness"
FJ
FJ
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