Brothers and Sisters,
This week, we celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. They are the big superstars of Christianity. Not only did they form the foundation and faith of the early Church, but they also gave us a model to follow in carrying out Christ’s mission in life. We need to ponder their example and imitate it in our own life circumstances. Like Peter, despite our sinfulness, despite our weak flesh, we’re called to confess Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah and Son of God and to follow him until death. Like Paul, despite our unworthiness or the things we’ve done opposed to the kingdom, we’re called to make up for lost time, to share with others as most important the “Good News” we have received, and to do all we can to fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith. Like both of them, we’re called to become pillars and determined leaders in the Church making it stronger, keeping it more united, through knowing, loving, and sharing the truth, and through knowing and loving and serving our neighbor.
We should never doubt the mission and plan God has called us to. As we look at the personalities of Peter and Paul, we see that God called them to use their personalities and talents to spread the Gospel. Peter to use his impulsive love to look after the flock, and Paul to use his training as a Pharisee and his strength of character to ensure that the non-Jewish people would be welcomed into the Church. It is a reminder to us that our talents and our weaknesses, too, can become God’s means of helping others, if we allow it. We don’t have to be perfect for God to work through us. God can work through us, faults and all, as he did with Peter and Paul, if we are open and willing.
God Bless,
Deacon Howard
