Homily of Bishop Paul on the Solemnity of Sts. Peter & Paul (Full Text)

Each time we read the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of Saint Paul we are meeting the Christian communities in the big cities and business centres of that time: Antiochia, Ephesus, Corinth and alike. Listening to the names of those cities,  I have spontaneously to think about the centres here in the Gulf: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Muscat, Doha, Bahrain and so on because there is some similarity. At the time of the Apostles Peter and Paul we find considerable migrant populations around the Mediterranean Sea as well as in the cities of the Middle East and even in India. There were Jewish settlements and other people who for political or economic reasons had left their original home-place and found a new livelihood in the respective cities. At the same time, they were never sure if they had to move again as it happened for example to Aquila and Prisca who had to leave Rome for Corinth. Later we find them in Ephesus. Our situation as expats has therefore some similarity with the one the disciples found when they started their mission.

In the Acts we can read that Saint Paul was not successful in Athens, the intellectual centre of the Greek culture. Interestingly he did much better in the vicious migrants’ mix of Corinth and among the simple people of Ephesus. Paul refers to this situation in his first letter to the Corinthians: “Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing … When I came to you, brothers, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Co 1:26 – 2:2). Isn’t it a mirror of our situation where we are also simple people with our daily struggles to survive?

Once it happened in Corinth that Paul was particularly discouraged. In this situation of distress, the Lord spoke to him in a vision during the night: “Do not be afraid. Go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you. No one will attack and harm you, for I have many people in this city” (Ac 18:9-10). I think that the Lord could say the same here in Abu Dhabi and in other cities of the Gulf. “I have many people in this city.” Paul had not yet discovered them, but the Lord knew better and taught him. There are many among us who do not make big noise but trust in the Lord and belong to him.

For a disciple of Christ, the decisive question is not the visible success or a brilliant statistic, which will drastically go down because of the pandemic and its economic consequences. However, the follower of Christ stands or falls with his trust in the Lord. This is the reason why today’s feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, the patrons of our Vicariate, is so important. Remember the question Jesus is asking his disciples: “Why are you terrified, o you of little faith?” (Mt 8:26) Remember Peter who first courageously walked on the water to meet Jesus but then doubted and began to drown. The Lord stretched out his saving hand and asked him the question: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Mt 14:31)

In the gospel Peter appears very often as the self-confident disciple who soon afterwards shows his doubts and cowardness. Today we heard the self-confident Peter when he professed: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16). And Jesus is praising him although making him understand that “not flesh and blood has revealed this to (him), but (his) heavenly Father” (Mt 16:17). Only under this condition Christ can entrust him with a superhuman task: “I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18).

The mandate Jesus has given, does not save Peter from wrong thinking and wrongdoing. The gospels are very honest in this regard. Immediately after installing Peter as rock of the church in today’s gospel, Jesus speaks about his forthcoming passion and death on the cross. Peter objects and wants to hinder Jesus. The reaction of the Lord is very harsh: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (Mt 16:23). Peter had painfully to learn what it really meant to follow Jesus and not his own will. Are we not in the same situation?

Dear Sisters and Brothers, Peter, Paul and the other apostles had to go through a process of learning. Jesus was a demanding but also patient teacher. It is our own experience as Christians on the way. We too experience that we do not always make a good impression. However, the only important thing is, that we put our full trust in the one who called us and to whom we confess in the same humble way as Simon Peter did: “Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you” (Jo 21,17). If we do it consequently, our weakness will with the grace of God be converted into strength and become a witness for the incredible power of God. Amen.