Homily Sts. Peter and Paul - June 29, 2025

 Readings for this day can be found here.

            If you were asked to pick a person to lead the Church and another to preach the Gospel to those that haven’t heard it, what qualities would you look for?  Would it be someone with a great reputation?  Perhaps someone who seems very holy.  Maybe a person knowledgeable in theology and the bible.  Who did Jesus choose for these two roles?  To lead the Church, he chose Peter.  A simple fisherman who asked Jesus to go away from him because he was a sinful man.  Who tried his best to understand what Jesus was telling him but had trouble getting it quite right.  A man who denied three times he knew Jesus after Jesus was arrested.

            Jesus chose Paul to be the Apostle to the Gentiles.  Paul was knowledgeable in the Law of Moses, trained by an eminent scholar.  He was so zealous for the Jewish faith he was willing to imprison and kill those he believed did not worship God correctly.  Paul was a man feared by the early Christians.  Peter and Paul are probably the least likely people we would choose for such important ministries in serving God.

            But that’s how God works.  God has a vocation for all of us.  God calls us to discern that vocation and how to carry it out.  God picks the least likely people to do great things.  We may feel we don’t have the skills, the faith, or the background to do what God is calling us into.  However, God can do the most amazing things with whatever talents we possess.  Ask my wife sometime whether she thought I would ever be a deacon.  Or the people that knew me in high school or college.  They’d think it was the funniest thing they’d ever heard.  Even I would have thought you were crazy.  Yet, by the grace of God, here I am, serving this incredible community.

            Perhaps God is calling you also to ordained ministry as a priest or deacon.  Or maybe you’re feeling a pull to the religious life.  Talk to Jesus and pray about that.  Don’t worry if you think you can’t do it.  Believe me, you can.  You may be called to some other vocation: marriage, ministry in the Church, service to the community.  Be open to that calling.  Don’t worry about how you’ll do it.  God provides us the tools we need to follow the plan God has for us.

            We hear about two of these tools in our first reading.  While Peter was in prison, the Church prayed fervently to God for him.  Prayer is one of the strongest tools we have.  We should not only pray for ourselves, but especially for others.  God responded to the prayers of the people for Peter.  The second tool are the angels.  God’s response to the Church’s prayers was to send an angel to help Peter.  The angels are here to help us also if we ask.  Each of us has a guardian angel.  We can ask our guardian angel to protect us and to guide us to do God’s will.

            Our second reading gives us additional tools to help us in our vocations.  Paul states he kept the faith and God stood by him and gave him strength.  Faith and trust in God are essential in discerning our vocations and carrying them out.  God will stand by us when our vocations are difficult.  Both Peter and Paul were persecuted for their faith.  Being a faithful disciple of Jesus may bring hardships for us also, especially in our current times.  Loving our neighbors as ourselves is not a popular message with everyone today.  Standing up for the poor or for immigrants can have negative consequences.  We might receive angry or insulting comments on social media.  It can result in heated conversations with friends or family.  For those called to attend certain protests, it could mean clashing with police or the military.  Many have been arrested for simply challenging immigration officials.

            We needn’t worry if these things happen.  Jesus angered the political authorities of His day.  Jesus was more concerned with the judgement of God over the judgement of people.  Peter and Paul were also unafraid of what people could do to them.  These unlikely disciples trusted God to care for them and provide them what they needed.  They carried out the vocation God called them to fulfill.   God has a vocation for all of us as well.  We must be willing to trust that God will use whatever talents we have in ways we’ll never expect.  With faith, prayer, and the guidance of our guardian angels, we can be the disciples God calls us to be.  Whether we think we are worthy or not.  What is God calling you to do?  Are you willing to take the same leap of faith as Peter and Paul?