From the Gospel: Of fishes and scrolls
The Church will never fail to be impressed by the transformation brought about in Peter and Paul
Solemnity of St Peter and St Paul. Today’s readings: Acts 12,1-11; 2 Timothy 4,6-8.17-18; Matthew 16,13-19
Peter lay there in the prison cell, “guarded by four squads of four soldiers each… sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance” (Acts 12,4.6). Before he slept, he must have remembered the days spent on his boat in Galilee, surrounded by friends, not stern-looking soldiers, taking in the fresh, wet breeze of the lake, not breathing the damp, smelly air of his prison cell.
His hands would get entangled in his fishing nets, but now they were clamped down with iron chains. The sounds he heard were the shouts of his friends and the waves that crashed against the boat’s hull. Now, there was only the heavy breathing of two seemingly drunken soldiers who snored like they had the most severe cases of sleep apnoea. Stocked up in a place more than 100km away from home, Peter must have asked himself: “How the h… did I get here?”
Paul, much like Peter, suffered a similar fate. In a letter to Timothy, he states: “I was delivered from the lion’s mouth” (2 Timothy 4,17). Paul was never thrown to the lions, but the maladies he faced were countless. Here, using metaphorical language, he was referring to some perilous situation where he felt his life was threatened. This was not the first trial of its kind, nor was it his last one. He was imprisoned, flogged, beaten with rods, pelted with stones, shipwrecked, exposed to death several times, to mention but some of his hardships (cf. 2 Corinthians 11,23-28). Paul too must have thought about his past, when he held the privileged position of a learned scholar of biblical scrolls who wielded authority. Like Peter, he must have thought to himself: “How and why did my fortune change so drastically?”
The answer to these two questions is simple – it is because of Jesus that the simple fisherman would clash with Herod, and the learned scholar would have his dignity quashed publicly. If these stories seem too remote, it is worth noting that there have been numerous accounts of Christians who experienced a similar fate.
When we allow Jesus to take full control of our lives, we are given access to our eternal home
The Heavenly Man, by Christian Brother Yun and Paul Hathaway.
The Heavenly Man recounts the impressive experiences of Liu Zhenying (born in 1958), known as Brother Yun, a Chinese Christian evangelist who was imprisoned and tortured for his faith, particularly for not cooperating with the government-controlled Christian Church. Brother Yun describes how, having heard the voice of the Holy Spirit, he walked out of the maximum-security prison, going past prison guards, seemingly being invisible to them. He eventually moved to Germany and announced the Gospel to thousands of people internationally.
The Church will never fail to be impressed by the transformation brought about in Peter and Paul who, humanly speaking, were initially anything but fit for purpose. Yet we marvel not so much at the change brought about in them, or at the challenges they faced after they met Christ. Rather, we admire their indomitable faith and unshakeable conviction in Christ’s power to save.
Peter reflects on his deliverance and states: “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has… rescued me” (Acts 12,11). Similarly, Paul considers the climax of his achievements, not as having endured suffering, but as having “kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4,7). Faith in what? None other than in the ultimate truth about Jesus: “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God” (Matthew 16,16).
Recently, I was admiring a 19th-century painting of Peter in a private collection. A pair of keys in his right hand and an upward-pointing left index finger featured prominently – keys not of an earthly prison but of heaven’s kingdom. Recalling Peter and Paul’s faith, those keys remind us that when we allow Jesus to take full control of our lives, we are given access to our eternal home.