Saints Peter and Paul: The Prince of the Apostles and the Apostle to the Gentiles

Saints Peter and Paul: The Prince of the Apostles and the Apostle to the Gentiles

 
Each year on the twenty-ninth, of June the Church solemnly celebrates the memory of Saints Peter and Paul.  Peter and Paul according to holy tradition were both martyred in Rome, during the reign of the emperor Nero.  

 
It is customary on this day for the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople of the Eastern Orthodox Church to send a representative delegation to greet the Pope of Rome.  This fraternal gesture is repeated each twentieth, of November when the Pope of Rome sends a delegation to the Patriarch of New Rome (Constantinople) on the feast day of Saint Andrew, the patron of the Eastern Orthodox Church.  

The Calling of the Apostles

 
In those days he departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.  When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called a Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. - Luke 6:12-16

 
In the Creed of Nicaea-Constantinople, Christians profess along with trinitarian monotheism, that they believe that the Church of God in the power of the Holy Spirit is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.  

 
Apostle means one who is sent. These men who had experienced the resurrected Lord Jesus; they are fundamental and foundational to the very life of the Church, and it’s calling to evangelize the world.  In experiencing the victorious and risen Lord, their lives were changed, Christian lives transformed, and the relationship of the world with God has been reconstructed and redeemed.  

 
Sacred Scripture and Holy Tradition, especially reveals the central ministries of Saints Peter and Paul.  Peter the Prince of the apostles and Paul the apostle to the Gentiles, labored to the point of martyrdom, to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to the Jewish and Gentile communities they encountered in the first century of Christianity.  While the apostolic preaching within the Jewish community met much resistance and little lasting success, their success in preaching to the Gentiles constructed the foundations for the future of the Church and the eventual conversion of the Greco-Roman world.  

 
And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. - Matthew 16:18

 
Peter is revealed in Sacred Scripture as the head of the apostles, or the twelve, and later in the Acts of the Apostles, as leader of the Apostolic Church.  His personality is often bold, brash, and authoritative.  For example:

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.  But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” - Matthew 14:29-30

 
Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) - John 18:10

 
Once when Jesus was praying in solitude, and the disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”  They said in reply, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, ‘One of the ancient prophets has arisen.’” Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said in reply, “The Messiah of God.” He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone. - Luke 9:18-21

 
It is especially his profession of faith that makes Peter the Prince of the apostles and the rock.  Even though he did not totally understand yet the totality of how Jesus is the Messiah, before he would encounter Christ Risen; for Peter did not understand the need for Jesus to suffer and die.  He already understood before the others that Jesus was not just another prophet, even if that mean’t being more than the greatest of prophets and even greater than John the Baptizer.  

 
Peter is given the honor of being the first to enter the empty of tomb of Jesus, even though John reached the tomb before him, an action acknowledging his role as leader of the apostles in witnessing to the truth of Christ:

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.  Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.  He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.  Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. - John 20:3-7

 
In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter speaks with boldness and authority among his Jewish brothers and sisters.  He speaks as the rock of the Church:

Therefore let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, “What are we to do, my brothers?”  Peter [said] to them, “Repent and be baptized ,every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit. - Acts 2:36-38

 
According to Holy Tradition, Peter will eventually be martyred in the Vatican Circus or Stadium, crucified upside down, to express his humility and unworthiness to be crucified like the Lord.  

 
For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. - 1 Corinthians 15:9

 
Often there is a misconception that Saul the persecutor of the early Christian Church became Paul at his conversion and baptism.  However, Saul was the Hebrew name of Saul of Tarsus and Paul was the Greek form of his name, which was was a derivative of the Latin, Paulus.

 
Saul of Tarsus was present at the stoning of Saint Stephen the deacon and first-martyr:

They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.  As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”; and when he said this, he fell asleep. - Acts 7:58-60

 
Paul it seems was either a Pharisee or at least shared in their ultra-orthodox understanding of the Law of Moses.  He also, professes to have been a student of Gamaliel, one of the leading rabbinical scholars of that time.  It was Paul’s strict adherence to the Mosaic Law as justifying a person by strict observance to the letter of the law, that made him persecute the first Christians, whom he felt did not adequately respect the tradition of their ancestors.  All this changed on the road to Damascus:

 
As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him.  He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”

“Who are you, lord?” Saul asked.

And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” - Acts 9:3-6

 
Paul was a Jew of the diaspora, born in the predominantly Greek city of Tarsus. Since the Babylonian captivity more Jewish people lived in the dispersion or diaspora than in Judea.  Paul was therefore not only schooled in the orthodoxy of Judaism, but also was exposed to the predominant religious and philosophical beliefs of the Greco-Roman or Hellenistic world.  We see this dual aspect of Paul’s intellectual character in his preaching at Athens, where he debated in the synagogue’s and in the streets with Greek, Epicurean and Stoic philosophers.  Eventually he goes to the Areopagus and speaks to the Athenians there:

 
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. - Acts 17:22-23

 
Paul with his disciples Timothy, Titus, Luke and others; established many local churches, suffered many imprisonments, beatings, and shipwrecks. Eventually, like Peter he suffered martyrdom during the reign of the emperor Nero.  Since he was. Roman citizen he could not be crucified, but was rather according to Holy Tradition was beheaded at Tre Fontane near the present day Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome.  

 
Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. - Galatians 1:18

 
We know that Peter and Paul encountered each other, knew how the other preached and understood the truth or salvation in Christ.  We know that in Antioch Paul challenged Peter on how he followed the Mosaic Law when with Jewish Christians as contrasted when he was with Gentile Christians.  

 
But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong.  When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision….“You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles.  Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. - Galatians 2:11-12, 15-16

 
Luke records that in Jerusalem the same question had vexed the early Christian community; concerning the obligation to follow the Mosaic Law to be saved and if the Law was to be therefore imposed on Gentile converts. It is here in Jerusalem that Peter and Paul speak with a united voice.

 
The apostles and the presbyters met together to see about this matter.  After much debate had taken place, Peter got up and said to them, “My brothers, you are well aware that from early days God made his choice among you that through my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe.  And God, who knows the heart, bore witness by granting them the holy Spirit just as he did us.  He made no distinction between us and them, for by faith he purified their hearts.  Why, then, are you now putting God to the test by placing on the shoulders of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?  On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they.”  The whole assembly fell silent, and they listened while Paul and Barnabas described the signs and wonders God had worked among the Gentiles through them. - Acts 15:6-12 

Peter and Paul witnessed to the faith to the point of laying down their lives in imitation of Christ.  They were martyred in Rome during the persecution of Nero, as previously mentioned.  Both Peter and Paul had suffered many times in Roman prisons, had endured many beatings and hardships.  Indeed, their witness was not only in their preaching but was a witness of the totality of their persons.  At all time they remained single minded in their ministry of preaching and teaching; the ministry of evangelization and apostolic governance of the Church.   

The authority of Peter is embodied in his successors in the Papal magisterium in guiding the Church as Head of the College of Bishops.  The inspiration of Paul persists in the missionary life of the Church, the preaching the Gospel, and in his epistles found in Sacred Scripture.  Together, Peter and Paul give us the enduring witness of the living Apostolic faith.

- Rev. David A. Fisher