Cardinal Tobin: We Are His Witnesses, In the Footsteps of Saints
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
On Sunday, June 29, we will celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. We are all familiar with these two saints. Peter is “the rock” whom Christ chose to be the foundation on which his Church is built. Paul is the great missionary who proclaimed the Gospel in his words and actions, and who helped St. Peter and the other Apostles move beyond their comfort zones in the Church’s earliest days.
If we look closely at these two giants of our faith, we see that they were ordinary people — like you and me — who were asked by Christ to do extraordinary things. Peter was a fisherman. The Gospels show him to be passionate, impulsive and weak (in spite of his bravado). He protests loudly, “Lord I will never betray you!” but when put to the test, he falls far short of his well-intentioned promise.
Paul was a zealous Pharisee who persecuted the early Christians. He was present when the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen, was murdered. Paul’s conversion was dramatic, and the assignment the Risen Lord gave him — to be the Apostle to the Gentiles—was incredibly difficult and important. Through the letters and missionary example of St. Paul, Christ continues to be made known to people of many different cultures, languages and religious backgrounds in every corner of the world.
Peter and Paul were both Spirit-filled evangelizers, missionary disciples who allowed the Holy Spirit to enter into their minds and hearts. Empowered by the Spirit, they overcame their weaknesses, their prejudices, and their fears. On fire with Gospel joy, both men worked miracles of faith and healing. They both built up the Body of Christ in the Church’s earliest days, when proclaiming the Gospel was a dangerous and extremely difficult thing to do!
Pope Francis once said with characteristic bluntness that we Christians should not be sourpusses (“vinegar faces” in the original Spanish), even when confronted with obstacles, doubts or fears. We shouldn’t act like our faith is a burden, or that Christian life is made up of an endless series of oppressive rules and regulations. We should be joyful — rejoicing in our freedom and in our abiding sense of confidence in God’s love for us.
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