Homily: June 29 2015 - Martyrdoms of Sts. Peter and Paul

Today we celebrate the martyrdoms of two of the greatest human beings who have ever lived: St. Peter and St. Paul.  Their martyrdoms were heroic and holy.  Peter was killed very near to where St. Peter’s Basilica is in the Vatican which was then a Roman Circus named after the Roman Emperors Caligula and Nero.  As his executioners were preparing to crucify him, Peter gave them one last dying wish, which delighted the sadistic executioners.  He asked to be crucified upside down, even though that would multiply his sufferings greatly.  He didn’t consider himself worthy to be crucified in the same manner as our Lord 34 years before outside the gates of Jerusalem. 

At the end of St. John’s Gospel, is the story where the Lord asks Peter three times, “Peter, do you love me”, then tend my sheep, feed my sheep.  The Lord then says, “Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands.”  And Peter did stretch out his hands on a cross because he loved the Lord more than anything else.  And now Peter is with the Lord forever in heaven.

St. Paul was slain for Christ, also in Rome, legend says, on the same day as St. Peter.  Because Paul was a Roman citizen, the law said he could not be crucified.  So he was dragged out the south gate of Rome and was decapitated at a place called Aquae Salviae.

Imprisoned in Rome, before his death, he wrote the letter we heard today in our second reading, a letter to his spiritual son, Timothy, in which he said, “I am about to be poured out like a libation; the time of my departure is near”, but I have fought the good fight. When the threat of martyrdom drew near, he was able to say, in all honesty, “I have kept the faith.” 

Both Peter and Paul teach us that Christ is not just worth living for, he is worth dying for.  The Lord Jesus who gave his life for them, was worthy of giving their life for him. 

Where they started out was dramatically different from where they ended. Peter, the fisherman from Galilee who became the prince of the apostles, and Paul who carried the Gospel to the ends of the known world, who first persecuted Christians. God shines through the human weakness of Peter and Paul.

We remember them today, and seek their intercession, that we too may love the Lord to the end, that we might be poured out for him, that we may keep the faith, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.