The Catalog of Good Deeds

“For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us”. (Romans 8:36-37)

The Holy and Supreme Apostles Peter and Paul had a full of dangers, adventures, sorrows and persecutions life in Christ. On this path, they faced many misfortunes; they were beaten up and imprisoned many times. More than once Apostle Paul was in the dungeons of various cities all over the Roman Empire. In spite of that he was constantly taking care of the churches he had established and to which he sent his famous letters. But still, their difficult but blessed apostolic ministry, full of grace and love, brought them a lot of joy, too.

However, as Apostle Paul writes in his second letter to Timothy, “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand” (2 timothy 4:6), the apostles reached the moment of their martyrdom. Our Lord Jesus Christ blessed them with the martyrdom crown on the same year, the same day and in the same city – Rome.

At that time, Apostle Peter was the head of the Christian community in Rome, while Paul was imprisoned in Rome for the second time. The death of the supreme apostles is not described in the Holy Scripture. The story of Apostle Luke ends at Apostle Paul’s first coming to Rome. But there is still some knowledge of what was going on at that time, preserved by the Roman community of Christians, who strived to keep the memory of their martyrs.

According to the information that came to our time, most likely Apostles Peter and Paul suffered in the year 67 AD in Rome, during the last years of the reign of cruel emperor Nero who began the persecutions of Christians all over the empire.

The story tells us that perhaps the apostles met each other on the day of their death. Apostle Paul was a Roman citizen and according to the Roman rule, Romans could not be executed inside the city walls for it was considered a sacred place. That is why the apostle was being brought to the place of his executions outside the city. It seems that somewhere on that way the meeting of Apostles Peter and Paul occurred. Apostle Peter decided to escape from Rome by the demand of Roman Christians, who wanted to save their teacher’s life, and met his brother on the apostolic ministry on his way from the city.

In Church iconography, there is an icon of the meeting of Apostles Peter and Paul, on which they are depicted hugging each other: “All the brethren greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss” (1 Corinthians 16:20). We do not know how that event happened, neither we know what the holy apostles were talking about. Probably, that meeting was predestined for Apostle Peter, who might need spiritual strengthening before his martyrdom.

There is also another story about Apostle Peter. According to it, when the apostle was leaving Rome, he saw Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Who answered the well known question of Apostle Peter, “Where are you going, Lord?” with the following words: “I am going to Rome to be crucified again”. Those words put Peter to shame and he came back to Rome to be crucified for the Name of Christ. We do not know whether that happened for real or it is just a pious story explaining why Peter decided to came back for his execution. However, we can assume that the words of Paul influenced Peter, and the Lord Himself was talking through Paul.

Apostles Peter and Paul hugging each other

So, what did Paul said to Peter, when they hugged each other for the last time? “Now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:20-21)? Or maybe he said, “God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14)? Could Apostle Paul remind Apostle Peter about the Lord’s words: “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:26) or “He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:38-39)? Apostle Paul could also refer to the words of Prophet Isaiah: “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:3-5).

So, the Church story did not keep the exact words of Apostle Paul, which he addressed to his brother in Christ before his martyrly death. It is unknown whether Apostle Peter met Christ heading to Rome or he met Christ in his living word from the mouth of Apostle Paul.

The crucifixion of Apostle Peter

We do not know about these things. But what we really know is that something happened to Apostle Peter on his way from Rome - something that made him come back and undergo a severe execution for calling Jesus from Nazareth the Messiah and God, Who had become a true human for us people and our salvation. Crucifixion was that execution – the execution that was foretold for the apostle by God Himself: “Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish” (John 21:18). Apostle Peter returned to the city, was captured and crucified. Since he did not think he was worthy to die in the same way as his Heavenly Teacher died, Peter asked to crucify himself with his head down, which was done. What concerns Apostle Paul, it is known that he was beheaded with a sword. The day we commemorate them is the day when the main apostles of Christ’s Church gave their lives for Him.

This is how great and holy Apostles Peter and Paul, who spread the Church all over the Roman Empire, preached Crucified Christ for all the peoples, who helped those who were seeking for the truth and supported those who believed, ended their earthly life. Apostles Peter and Paul are the pillars of the One and Holy Apostolic Church, who will support until the end of times with their own examples, their pious lives and prayers all the people believing in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The beheading of Apostle Paul

What St. John Chrysostom says in his works:

I behold heaven and earth in contest today, for this present feast of the memory of the apostles, with the heavenly powers preciously praising their pained voice of teaching, through which was made known to the world the mystery, as Paul cries out: “So that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 3:10)”, while men on earth rush to rightly praise and show honor to the chiefs, through whom they have entered into salvation. For how was Peter great? How was Paul equal? Through their works and words they conquered all creation in the heavens and upon earth. For though the clay of their bodies was covered with wounds, they were found greater than the angels. What, therefore, shall I say towards those teachers of the creation above and below? I will not find a proper word to honor those who honored our people, who passed through the whole earth and sea, and uprooted the roots of sins, and sowed the seeds of piety in the hearts of disobedient men.

Peter, the teacher of the apostles; Paul, who is known to the world, and who partakes with the powers above. Peter, the bridle of the ungrateful Judeans; Paul, the entreaty for the nations. And I see the surpassing wisdom of the Master, for Peter was chosen from among fishermen, while Paul from the maker of tents, and He did this for our benefit. For he drowned the glory of the Judeans. Because of this, to the fisherman, the Lord said: “Go to the shore, and cast out your hook, and the first fish you find, open its mouth, and you will find a coin.” By sea, I take it to mean the lawless judgment of the Judeans. By hook, the crafted word of preaching. By fish, He symbolizes the law. Regarding the opening of its mouth, He speaks of its explanation. To find a coin in it, He means to spiritually examine it. While Paul was used as a tent-maker for the nations, that they who were naked, through the law and grace, might be clothed with the red covering that was dyed in the water and blood of the Master. Therefore, the Master cries to him: “Go forth, therefore, for I send you to the far away nations.”

Reflections in the Holy Church tradition:

O Lord, You have taken up to eternal rest and to the enjoyment of Your blessings the two divinely inspired preachers, the leaders of the Apostles, for You have accepted their labors and deaths as a sweet-smelling sacrifice, for You alone know what lies in the hearts of men.

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None of us can tell the story of our lives without pointing to particular persons we have known and who have shaped us. In our families and friendships, people are not interchangeable, for we are all unique in our relationships with one another and with God. We play particular roles that are colored by our character, personal history, and distinctive blend of strengths and weaknesses. That is also how it is in the life of the Church. Particular people matter.

Today we celebrate two of the most glorious Saints of the Christian faith. They are both pillars of the Church, apostles, and martyrs whose unique personalities and experiences have made decisive and permanent contributions to the Body of Christ. Saint Peter was the head disciple whose confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” is the rock on which Christ, our true foundation, has built His Church. The gospels describe Peter’s presence at so many crucial moments in the ministry of the Lord, including at His arrest when Peter, who had so clearly confessed Him earlier and vowed never to abandon Him, denied Him three times. Of course, the risen Christ restored Peter by asking him three times if he loved Him and giving him the command to feed His sheep as a shepherd of the flock of Christians. And in the book of Acts, we see Peter boldly proclaiming the good news, performing miracles, and playing a key role in welcoming Gentiles into the Church. After serving as the first bishop of Antioch, where the disciples were first call0ed Christians, then he went to serve in Rome. Peter was crucified there upside down for his faith in Jesus Christ, for by Peter’s own request he was unworthy to die in the same way as His Savior.

That St. Paul plays a glorious role in the formation of the faith is obvious to anyone who knows the New Testament, for he wrote so much of it. He traveled for decades founding and supporting churches, especially among Gentiles. Paul himself was Jewish and had been a strict Pharisee who had persecuted Christians. But on the road to Damascus, the risen Lord appeared to Him in a blinding light and called him to repentance and the shocking ministry of bringing Gentiles into the Body of Christ through faith, not circumcision and obedience to the Old Testament law. Perhaps more than anyone else, Paul made clear that the Christian faith is not a sect of Judaism primarily for people of a particular ethnic and religious heritage, but instead good news for all people, regardless of their ancestry.

As today’s epistle passage reminds us, Paul’s ministry was not easy by any stretch of the imagination. He was beaten, imprisoned, humiliated, and ultimately martyred in Rome for his faith in Jesus Christ. He knew both the heights of spiritual ecstasy and the chronic challenge of a “thorn in the flesh” that God did not remove, despite his three-fold request. Whatever that thorn may have been, Paul learned through his sufferings the sufficiency of God’s strength for him. God’s “strength is made perfect in (Paul’s) weakness.“ As the apostle said of himself, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

When we study the lives of these two great saints, we do not see people who made no mistakes or who were rich, famous, or without problems. These were real human beings who fell short, repented, grew over time in their understanding, and faced such opposition that both suffered capital punishment at the hands of the pagan Romans. They gained absolutely no worldly advantages by their faithful ministry, but their selfless service strengthened the Church in ways too numerous to count. We are here today as Orthodox Christians because of what God did through them and so many other lesser known apostles, martyrs, and evangelists across the ages.

In order to celebrate worthily the feast day of Sts. Peter and Paul, we must go beyond praising them with our words. We must participate personally in the holiness so evident in them. In other words, we must become like them in a way appropriate to our particular calling and location. For just as God used a fisherman and a Pharisee with given sets of strengths and weaknesses to His glory, He intends to do likewise with each of us. The first century is long gone, but there is plenty of time left in the twenty-first century for us to hear and respond to the same risen Lord who called Peter to feed His sheep and Paul to become a missionary to the Gentiles. Like the Ephesians to whom Paul wrote, we too have become “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone…” (Eph. 2:19-20)

Each generation is like a new story added to the building or a new branch growing on a tree. Even as we find our personal history in the previous generations of our families, we take our spiritual life from the living history of what the Holy Spirit has done through each generation in the life of the Church. We are called to make present in our day the same faithfulness that we see in those who have gone before us, but we do so as unique, unrepeatable persons called to grow in the divine likeness and to find the fullness of our identity through union with the Lord like an iron left in the fire. Just as a fisherman and a Pharisee became radiant with the divine energies through their repentance and steadfast dedication to Christ, the same can be true of us.

We may think, however, that we are simply too sinful to achieve such spiritual heights. We know that we fall short and may be ashamed even to think of becoming like these great saints. Remember for just a moment, however, that Peter denied Christ three times at His arrest and Paul persecuted Christians to the point of death. If they can repent, follow Jesus Christ faithfully, and have such exalted roles in the life of the Church, who are we to excuse ourselves from whatever God wants of us in our families, our parish, our work, or whatever it might be? In all likelihood, we will live and serve in obscurity and face obstacles much smaller than the brutal persecution these great saints endured.

As well, we may be tempted to think that they were so much stronger than we are. Remember that St. Paul found God’s strength precisely in his weakness, in his infirmities and pains that opened his life to the gracious power of God. St. Peter must have felt weak when the Lord said “Get behind me, Satan” to him when he tried to explain to Christ that He would not be rejected and killed. And could there be any greater moment of weakness than when the disciple who boasted that he would never abandon the Savior did so at his arrest by denying Him three times?

Our moments of weakness are probably less dramatic, but they are no less real. We find it hard to do the basics of the Christian life: forgive our enemies; pray each day and fast regularly; attend the Divine Liturgy and other services of the Church whenever possible; take Confession on a regular basis and especially when we have a guilty conscience about a grave sin; give generously to the poor; visit the sick and lonely; and guard our hearts and minds from the moral decay that permeates our culture.

When we are aware of our weaknesses, we are in the perfect place to follow in the way of the fisherman and the Pharisee who in humble repentance found a strength that makes up what is lacking, heals infirmities, and even conquers sin and death. Let us not use a false sense of humility to excuse ourselves from true discipleship as we celebrate the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. Instead, we must follow their example as the unique people we are, with all our strengths, failings, and peculiarities, for from the very beginning of the faith, that is the only way that anyone has become a saint.

By Fr. Philip LeMasters

Source: http://easternchristianinsights.blogspot.com/2014/06/there-is-hope-for-us-all-homily-for.html