Homily for the Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul
28th June 2009

Rock Oil
There’s a car which parks near here which has “rock oil” printed on the fuel cap. There’s another car which boasts the fact that it runs on vegetable oil, which has nothing to do with geology or rock structures as fossil fuel does.

Rock means different things
Whether it’s to do with fuel or foundations or the material in a building, rock means different things at different times. The idea of rock oil would have meant nothing to the people of Jesus’ time.

Jesus takes his disciples to a rocky place
In the Gospel we heard how Jesus took his disciples to a rocky place. It is in the foothills of Mount Hermon and is a long way from Jerusalem. When they arrived the rocks would have been significant because the cliffs and caves which surround the rising River Jordan had been made into a shrine to the pagan God called Pan (of panic and pandemic fame). The rocky environment had long been associated with the revelation of the truth about God and so Jesus puts the question at the heart of the Gospel.

Who do people say the Son of Man is?
The answer indicates that Jesus was associated with prophets like Jeremiah and the others but he took the disciples a stage further. “But you, who do you, say I am?” Peter was usually the first to speak and this time he gave the answer that was to change history. Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. He was the one who comes from God, who is God; who brings the healing and power of God’s love into the broken story of creation and humanity, restoring it to God’s original purpose. Peter and the others were fast reaching the point where they believed that Jesus had changed the course of history because he is the one who completes history and the whole of creation.

The rock that is Peter
Peter’s faith and that of that early group of followers meant that Jesus could go yet another stage: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.

What did he mean by rock?
Did he mean the rock of Caesarea Philippi which stood for a pagan God? Could he possibly mean the most sacred rock underneath the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple from where God had taken mud to form Adam’s head, under which Adam was buried, where Abraham has sacrificed Isaac, where God has ascended into heaven after creation and where heaven was joined to earth?

Not a building in the usual sense
No he didn’t mean any of those because the building was not going to be made of stones or rocks it was going to be made of human beings filled with faith and bound together in love.

That is what Jesus meant by Church, the gathered group, that consecrated nation, that people set apart with Peter as the one whose job it was to bind and loose, to keep all these people together in this great Cathedral of peace as John Paul II described in Coventry.

Jesus was not talking about a physical building but the Temple which was his own body and of which we become members in Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist.

We honour Peter and Paul
And so we honour today the two men who gave their lives to form the Church of Christ; Paul and Peter who in his chosen way gathered into unity the one family of Christ. Paul who did it for the nations and Peter who did for the faithful flock of Israel.

Today is about honouring Peter and Paul and it is also about giving thanks for the Church which they founded and of which we are members.

We are responsible
Guided by Pope Benedict with his brother Bishops, whose task it is to bind and loose, to restrict and to allow freedom so that the whole Church may grow and flourish, we are all responsible for the life and well being of this Church which the Lord builds on our faith.

Each of us is a living stone in this spiritual house called the Church.

Gifts
Each of us has a responsibility to see that  our gifts and energies are used in the service of the kingdom of which the Church is the servant. This, as I understand it, is the meaning of Christian stewardship. The work of the Church is the work of Christ and we are the ones who must make it happen enabled by the Holy Spirit. Christian initiation claims and embraces all of us and everything about us and puts it at the service of Christ.

Involved in Mission
Each of us has a responsibility to see that we are involved somehow in the mission of the Church because like Peter and Paul we are called to it and called to be witnesses to Christ’s risen presence.
 
Sunday Eucharist
Each of us has a responsibility to ensure that we gather on Sunday to listen to God’s word and celebrate the Eucharist out of loyalty to God and the community of which each of us is an indispensable part.

The sin
The sin is to think and act based on the assumption that we are not good enough and that the Church can manage without us. We know and believe that our joint mission would be all the poorer because of our lack of personal engagement.

After all with Paul we can say: “The Lord stood by me and gave me power, so that through me the whole message might be proclaimed for all the pagans to hear…”