Yesterday, we honored St Irenaeus as the saint of the day. He was the Bishop of Lyons in France who defended the Catholic faith against heresy, dying a martyr’s death during a time of persecution. Last week, we celebrated the nativity of St John the Baptist, the man we prepared the path for the coming of Jesus, who also died a martyr for his faith, having been put to death by the Roman authorities. Also, last week, we honored St Thomas More and St John Fisher, two men who were martyred from their refusal to deny their Catholic faith and the authority of the Pope during the reign of King Henry VIII of England in the 16th century. I mention these martyrs today, because they all fall during the observance of the Fortnight for Freedom, 14 days in which the Catholic faith turns to prayer, education and action for religious freedom, both in our own country of the United States and in other countries around the world. The theme of this year’s Fortnight for Freedom is “Witnesses to Freedom. During the Fortnight for Freedom, we are to hold firm, stand fast, and insist upon what belongs to us by right as Catholics.
We celebrate an important solemnity today in the midst of the Fortnight for Freedom - the solemnity of St Peter and St Paul, two martyrs for the Faith during the first century of the Early Church in Rome. Both Peter and Paul worked tirelessly in proclaiming the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in the first century after Christ’s death and resurrection. They both had specific calls which had dramatic and profound effects on the development of the faith not only in Ancient Israel but throughout the world. Peter, one of the original group of Christ’s apostles, was the rock on which Jesus established the Early Church as it declares in today’s Gospel from Matthew today. The first pope, Peter helped establish the structures and traditions of the Early Church that have been passed down to us in the faith. In many ways, Paul represents the continuity and constancy of our faith that has been passed down to us by the apostles and the Early Church Fathers and Mothers. Paul, in many ways, represents the missionary and the prophet in the Church, the way the Church is always reaching out to different cultures and those of different walks of life, in responding to the lived reality of the people, infusing that reality with our faith. The Church is always pushing into areas of social justice and social concern within the world, in communicating the message of Jesus Christ through new mediums and new technology. When I was a missionary in Ecuador without even a telephone or a computer or direct mail service, I could never have imagined myself as a priest using things such as an ipad or a blog or a parish app. Yet, in the spirit, of Paul, we are always finding new ways of reaching out to others, Pope Francis with his twitter account included!
In the Early Church, one had to be a martyr to be declared a saint, with so many having given their lives for the Gospel in the time of great persecution. The spirit of St Peter and St Paul is still alive and well in the Church today. At the end of our days, may we be like Paul, who is able to say in the 2nd letter to Timothy, that we have competed well, that we have finished the race, and that we derive our strength from the Lord.
