Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us celebrate together the occasion of the great Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul, the two great pillars of the Church, as two of the most important Apostles in the Church, with St. Peter the Apostle being the leader of all the Apostles, the leader of the Twelve Apostles, the chief servant of God as the one to whom the Lord had entrusted His Church, as the ‘Rock’ of faith upon which the Church had been founded upon. St. Peter the Apostle as the first Pope and Vicar of Christ led the whole entire Church in communion and together with all the whole body of the Apostles and the other disciples of the Lord, together with the whole entire Church, and he was called from his work as Simon the fisherman at the lake of Galilee to be a fisher of man in gathering all of God’s people to Himself.

Meanwhile, St. Paul the Apostle was once known as Saul, a young Pharisee who was very impulsive and zealous in pursuing the ideals and goals of the Pharisees and their version of the Jewish customs, faith and tradition, and was initially very militant in his efforts to attempt to root out the early Christian Church and faith, persecuting and arresting many of the disciples of the Lord. However, God had a different plan for Saul, whom he called on the way to Damascus in attempting to arrest more of the disciples and followers of the Lord. Saul was touched by the Lord and he had a life-changing experience, choosing to follow the Lord henceforth and becoming one of His greatest disciples and defenders, becoming Paul, the great Apostle to the Gentiles, for his courageous efforts in mission to the Gentiles or the non-Jewish people.

And this Sunday’s celebration particularly has a very great importance for all of us as we belong to the Roman Catholic Church and as part of the Roman Rite of the Church, with our Pope, Pope Leo XIV as the Successor of St. Peter as the Vicar of Christ and leader of the whole entire Church being also the Bishop of Rome, as the Ordinary of the Diocese of Rome, which was during the time of the Lord and His Apostles, the heart and centre of the then mighty Roman Empire. And it was in Rome that both St. Peter and St. Paul went to minister to the people of God and proclaim the Good News of the Lord to those who had not yet believed in God and known Him, and they were both eventually martyred there in Rome. Hence, that is why both St. Peter and St. Paul are celebrated this Sunday with this Solemnity as the Patron Saints of Rome, the seat of our Pope.

Then, as we all reflect upon the Scripture readings this Sunday, we are reminded of the great wonders and things which the Lord had done through St. Peter the Apostle and the other Apostles and disciples, who were merely ordinary men, and yet, they had been given great power and authority, with His guidance and providence as we heard from our first reading taken from the Acts of the Apostles. In that occasion, we heard of the persecution which King Herod of Galilee carried out against the early Christians including the Apostles, whom he arrested, including that of St. Peter himself, with the intention of persecuting him to please the members of the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees and the Sadducees in order to gain their favour and support.

But the Lord was with St. Peter and the other disciples, and He sent His Angel to them to their prison, miraculously freeing them from their shackles and their bonds so that they could continue to carry out their mission, which St. Peter and the other disciples carried out most fervently and faithfully, encouraging the other disciples by the testimony of their faith and that of God’s assurance and providence, as the faithful themselves witnessed how the Lord was with St. Peter and those who had been arrested, freeing them miraculously from the shackles of those who had incarcerated them. Through this and many other miraculous occasions, St. Peter and the other disciples of the Lord continued to labour tirelessly for the Lord and His Church.

In our second reading this Sunday, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to St. Timothy, St. Paul the Apostle sent a message of encouragement to his protege, St. Timothy, whom he had set and prepared as a leader and elder of the early Church, that despite all the hardships and trials that he had to face and endure as a servant of God, but the Lord was always with him and all the other missionaries and therefore, St. Timothy and the other members of the faithful should not be afraid to continue carrying out the missions and works which had been entrusted to them. With the Lord by their side, as how He had guided St. Paul in his ministry, they would all surely do great and wonderful things for the greater glory of God and in proclaiming His truth and Good News to many more people.

Then finally, from our Gospel passage this Sunday, taken from the Gospel according to St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the Lord Jesus asking His disciples on who they thought He was, and they all spoke of what they had heard and what was commonly believed at the time, that Jesus was a Man of God, a Prophet and Teacher that the Lord had sent, but it was only St. Peter, then known as Simon, who had the courage and faith to speak the full truth, that the Lord Jesus was truly the Messiah or the Saviour, which had been promised, and also the Son of God Most High, not merely like any other Prophets and Teachers that the Lord had sent to His people. For this, the Lord bestowed upon Simon the new name of Peter, which means ‘Rock’ knowing that in St. Peter lies a truly strong and enduring faith that would become a steady Rock and Foundation of His Church.

Through what the Lord had told to St. Peter in our Gospel passage today, He clearly established His Church in this world, the Body of all the faithful united in communion with the Apostles and especially to St. Peter and his successors, to the Lord Who is the true Head of the Church. To St. Peter and his successors, the Lord had entrusted the authority and power to govern, guide and strengthen the whole Church, over all the faithful, giving them the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. By this action, He established the Church as we all know it today, which still remain strong even after two millennia, against all the threats and challenges that it had faced, fulfilling what the Lord Himself had said, that not even the gates of hell would prevail against it. St. Peter would go on to Rome, and establish that line of Popes which lasts till today, until Pope Leo XIV, our current Pope, and together with St. Paul, St. Peter would be martyred in that city, the heart of the Roman Empire then.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, just as we have heard in our Scripture readings today and in all that we have just discussed, the Lord called both St. Peter and St. Paul from their ordinary and even most unlikely origins, the former being a mere illiterate and brash fisherman from the Lake of Galilee, who had even denied the Lord three times in times of distress, while the latter was an overzealous young Pharisee who persecuted the Church in the beginning. And yet, the Lord transformed them from their ordinary and unlikely origins and beginnings to be His great servants, to do many of His great works and perform many great wonders and miracles, touching the lives of so many people that they had encountered in their missions and journeys.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we rejoice greatly in this Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul, in honour of these two great saints and servants of God, let us all realise that the Lord has also been calling on each and every one of us to follow in their footsteps as well, and to do our very best in our lives so that by our commitment and good works, by our dedication and faith, our every actions, words and deeds, we will always glorify the Lord at all times and be active parts of the labours of His Church. May God be with us always, and may He strengthen us all in faith, in our love for Him, now and forevermore. Amen.

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us celebrate together the occasion of the great Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul, the two great pillars of the Church, as two of the most important Apostles in the Church, with St. Peter the Apostle being the leader of all the Apostles, the leader of the Twelve Apostles, the chief servant of God as the one to whom the Lord had entrusted His Church, as the ‘Rock’ of faith upon which the Church had been founded upon. St. Peter the Apostle as the first Pope and Vicar of Christ led the whole entire Church in communion and together with all the whole body of the Apostles and the other disciples of the Lord, together with the whole entire Church, and he was called from his work as Simon the fisherman at the lake of Galilee to be a fisher of man in gathering all of God’s people to Himself.

Meanwhile, St. Paul the Apostle was once known as Saul, a young Pharisee who was very impulsive and zealous in pursuing the ideals and goals of the Pharisees and their version of the Jewish customs, faith and tradition, and was initially very militant in his efforts to attempt to root out the early Christian Church and faith, persecuting and arresting many of the disciples of the Lord. However, God had a different plan for Saul, whom he called on the way to Damascus in attempting to arrest more of the disciples and followers of the Lord. Saul was touched by the Lord and he had a life-changing experience, choosing to follow the Lord henceforth and becoming one of His greatest disciples and defenders, becoming Paul, the great Apostle to the Gentiles, for his courageous efforts in mission to the Gentiles or the non-Jewish people.

And this Sunday’s celebration particularly has a very great importance for all of us as we belong to the Roman Catholic Church and as part of the Roman Rite of the Church, with our Pope, Pope Leo XIV as the Successor of St. Peter as the Vicar of Christ and leader of the whole entire Church being also the Bishop of Rome, as the Ordinary of the Diocese of Rome, which was during the time of the Lord and His Apostles, the heart and centre of the then mighty Roman Empire. And it was in Rome that both St. Peter and St. Paul went to minister to the people of God and proclaim the Good News of the Lord to those who had not yet believed in God and known Him, and they were both eventually martyred there in Rome. Hence, that is why both St. Peter and St. Paul are celebrated this Sunday with this Solemnity as the Patron Saints of Rome, the seat of our Pope.

Then, as we all reflect upon the Scripture readings this Sunday, we are reminded of the great wonders and things which the Lord had done through St. Peter the Apostle and the other Apostles and disciples, who were merely ordinary men, and yet, they had been given great power and authority, just as we heard in our first reading this Sunday from the Acts of the Apostles. In that occasion we heard how St. Peter and St. John were both at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple of Jerusalem and they encountered a man who had been afflicted with paralysis since his birth, and seeing his sufferings and predicament, they told him that they had nothing to give him, not money or help in that manner, but they were giving him an even greater gift, the gift of salvation and healing in the Name of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all.

This happened shortly after the Lord had risen from the dead and ascended into Heaven, and after the Holy Spirit had come upon all the Apostles and disciples of the Lord, the whole Church of God. The once fearful and timid Apostles and disciples began going forth most courageously and fearlessly in proclaiming the Good News of God, despite their earlier fears and uncertainties over the threats from the Pharisees and the other members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish High Council, which had threatened action and gave pressure against all those who proclaimed and taught in the Name of the Lord Jesus, or spoke of His Resurrection and truths. However, as we heard in our first reading this Sunday, St. Peter and St. John fearlessly and courageously invoked the Name of the Lord as they healed the man from his affliction.

Then, as we heard from our second reading this Sunday, as was mentioned earlier on, in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful people of God in Galatia, St. Paul the Apostle spoke of his past experiences of persecuting the early Christian communities and how he had been young, impulsive and misguided by wrong upbringing and mistaken perspective as a Pharisee. But God rescued him out of that situation and predicament, and through His guidance, help and strength, what was a great enemy of the Church turned into one of the Church’s greatest champions and defenders, making great use of his talents, energy and enthusiasm for the greater glory of God and for spreading the Good News of God instead of persecuting the Church wrongly as he had done earlier on.

St. Paul received the baptism and was welcomed into the Church, receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit and was instructed in the faith by the Apostles themselves, the members of the Twelve whom St. Paul mentioned meeting, and despite not being member of the Lord’s disciples when the Lord was still around in the world, he received the same truth that the other Apostles and disciples of the Lord had themselves received and preserved, by the sharing of the experiences and truths which the Lord’s disciples and followers had experienced firsthand. And from this exchange, St. Paul was strengthened through the Holy Spirit to go forth to the many places where he ministered to many of the Gentiles or the non-Jewish people throughout his many missionary journeys, that he became known as the Apostle to the Gentiles, the one spearheading the rapid expansion of the Church beyond its homeland in Judea and Jerusalem.

Lastly, from our Gospel passage this Sunday Vigil Mass, we also heard the account from the Gospel according to St. John the Apostle andLuke the Evangelist where the exchange between the Risen Lord Jesus and St. Peter the Apostle in Galilee was highlighted to us, where the Lord Jesus asked St. Peter not just once but three times, ‘Peter, do you love Me?’, and the significance of these questions must be understood from the context of what happened before between them during the time of the Lord’s Passion, the moment when He was betrayed by Judas Iscariot and persecuted. It was at that time, as we all should know that the Lord was also abandoned by all of His disciples, and St. Peter, who earlier on had declared that he would even die for Him, denied knowing Him when confronted by the people, not just once but three times.

Therefore, when the Risen Lord asked St. Peter not just once, but three times whether he loved Him, this was a very powerful symbol and reminder for St. Peter that the Lord has truly forgiven him and everything he had done in denying Him earlier on. The Lord’s love and compassion are truly boundless, and St. Peter, whose love and commitment to the Lord was also truly real and strong, devoted and committed himself totally to the Lord from then onwards. It was this great faith which the Lord saw and knew to be present in St. Peter, and which was why He chose him to be the leader of all of His Apostles and disciples in the first place, to be His Vicar and the first Pope. The Lord entrusted His Church and His entire flock of the faithful to St. Peter and the other Apostles, to be the ones to take care of them and to represent Him in this world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, just as we have heard in our Scripture readings today and in all that we have just discussed, the Lord called both St. Peter and St. Paul from their ordinary and even most unlikely origins, the former being a mere illiterate and brash fisherman from the Lake of Galilee, who had even denied the Lord three times in times of distress, while the latter was an overzealous young Pharisee who persecuted the Church in the beginning. And yet, the Lord transformed them from their ordinary and unlikely origins and beginnings to be His great servants, to do many of His great works and perform many great wonders and miracles, touching the lives of so many people that they had encountered in their missions and journeys.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we rejoice greatly in this Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul, in honour of these two great saints and servants of God, let us all realise that the Lord has also been calling on each and every one of us to follow in their footsteps as well, and to do our very best in our lives so that by our commitment and good works, by our dedication and faith, our every actions, words and deeds, we will always glorify the Lord at all times and be active parts of the labours of His Church. May God be with us always, and may He strengthen us all in faith, in our love for Him, now and forevermore. Amen.