When I was in Rome a few months ago, these two men were everywhere. Peter and Paul. If you entered a church and saw two big statues, you didn’t have to ask “Who’s that?” You knew.
It seemed like every church, every basilica, every chapel had these two saints — in statues, in stained glass, in frescoes. It made sense, of course; Peter and Paul are the patron saints of the City of Rome.
Seeing them so often, everywhere, it can be easy to reduce these two great men to little more than pieces of marble or images in glass.
But the scriptures we just heard remind us these were figures of flesh and blood. They suffered. And they triumphed.
As much as we idealize them, and maybe even idolize them, we need to see them for who they were, and who they are, and what they teach us today.
We look to them as the two greatest apostles. But what does that mean?
In Christian teaching, an apostle was one of the 12 close followers of Christ — someone who saw him, heard him, lived with him and carried his message to the wider world.
Webster’s tells us the word “apostle” comes from the Greek “Apostolos,” which means an emissary, literally “one who is sent off.”
In that regard, every one of us here today is an apostle — called to be sent into the world to live the Gospel and, in living it, proclaiming it to a broken, often hostile world.
The fact is: Peter and Paul have something to say to each of us — and I want to focus on three lessons they teach us about how to be an apostle.
They are lessons that boil down to two simple words — words every Boy Scout knows.
Be prepared.
First, be prepared to change.
Look at these two men. If you were looking for future saints, they wouldn’t be on anybody’s short list.
One was a liar. A betrayer. A coward. He constantly misjudged, made mistakes — even sank and almost drowned because of his lack of faith.
The other one was a persecutor, a zealot, a brilliant and devout Jew who did everything he could to wipe out the early Christians. He even stood by as one of them was stoned to death.
Yet despite that, look at what God did with these two imperfect souls. Their encounters with Jesus ignited in them a desire to change — and that changed everything. They changed the world! We are here because of them.
If God did that with Peter and Paul, imagine what he can do with each of us. Be prepared to be changed.
Secondly, be prepared to live out Christ’s words to Peter, the last words of last night’s Gospel for the vigil: “Follow me.”
This can be hardest of all. It means surrendering own own desires, standing in opposition to the values of the world, to follow the way of Christ. To follow Christ, Peter and Paul gave everything — including their lives.
I think of all the other Peters and Pauls in our world today, people of conscience and courage who follow Christ and who follow in the footsteps of those saints.
These are men and women who are continuing to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ in places like India, Nigeria, China, Latin America.
Years ago, a bishop from India told me about speaking to a group of lay catechists who were about to go into a hostile part of the country. They faced arrest, imprisonment and worse.
He asked them, “Are you prepared to die?” And all of them cried out, “Yes! We’re ready! Send us!”
He was stunned — and deeply humbled. Here was astounding faith.
Recently, I read about Sister Leonella Sgorbati, an Italian missionary who worked for many years among the poor in Somalia. In 2006, while leaving a children’s hospital in Mogadishu, Sister Leonella was attacked by gunmen. She was shot several times. Other sisters ran to her. As she lay dying, they said she kept repeating over and over, “I forgive, I forgive, I forgive.”
In 2018, she was beatified by Pope Francis.
If we take away nothing else from this solemnity, consider this. Remember the lives of Peter and Paul and so many others who have answered Christ’s call, “Follow me.”
And remember: we stand on the shoulders of giants. Ordinary people who answered the call to do something extraordinary. Never take that for granted. This is their legacy and their lesson. Remember.
Which brings me to my last point. Remembrance. To be an apostle, be prepared to remember.
Paul remembered what he was taught and passed it on. So should we.
Remember how all this began. Give thanks for it every day. Carry it forward in love. Pray in gratitude for all modern apostles striving today to preach, to teach, to evangelize, to proclaim the Gospel. Pray that all of us can live by the example of Peter and Paul.
Let us try to live by what they embodied and what they taught — as apostles of hope, as emissaries of compassion and mercy, courageous and passionate people sent into the world as witnesses to the love of Jesus Christ.
We should strive to live so that we carry St. Paul’s words in our heart, all the way to the end. In his letter to Timothy, while awaiting his execution, Paul wrote:
“I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.”
He trusted so fully in God, and remained grateful for the life he had lived, the Gospel he had proclaimed.
“The Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the proclamation might be completed.”
Don’t we want to be able to say the same thing in the final hours of our life?
Don’t we all want to be remembered as so solid in our faith that we might be called a “rock”?
Reflecting on St. Peter, “the rock”, Pope Francis once challenged his listeners with some hard questions:
“Are we stones, building blocks for the Church? Do we work for unity? Are we concerned for others, especially the weakest? And in our own weaknesses, do we entrust ourselves to the Lord who accomplishes great things through those who are humble and sincere?”
Like Peter and Paul, let us pray to be true apostles, emissaries, sent into the world to proclaim the Gospel we hear within these walls — and help it to then live and grow outside of them.
Pray to be prepared. Prepared to change, to follow, to remember.
And remember this: We stand on the shoulders of giants.
It’s our calling today to continue what they began.
