PETER AND PAUL

“Peter, James and John, who were esteemed as pillars of the church, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship”
-St. Paul to the Galatians 2:9

This weekend’s great Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul comes as a kind of finale in a series of extraordinary feasts: Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi, Sacred Heart. As Roman Catholics we celebrate these two Apostles with gusto because Peter and Paul founded the Church in Rome by their proclamation of the Gospel there and by the shedding of their blood. Many years this feast is easily overlooked, but this Jubilee Year of 2025 it providentially falls on a Sunday.

Any time the Church celebrates two Saints together, it evokes Christ’s sending His disciples out two-by-two. Across the ages, Peter and Paul have complimentary missions: varied but united in their common cause by the same Holy Spirit. As the beautiful cover image of this bulletin shows, both receive a mission to serve and bear witness to Christ Crucified and Risen. Each of their roles is essential. Peter and Paul certainly had their moments of differing perspective and friction (see Galatians 2 for a description of one incident), but fundamentally they were in communion. The glory of the Church is to draw individuals out of mere individuality into authentic communion.

From the first century account of the New Testament all the way through the present day, to be in union with Peter and the Apostles is to be in communion with Christ Himself, since they were formed by Him, established in the true Faith and appointed as His own ambassadors and representatives. I love that in so many ways, Catholicism is a faith of BOTH/ AND rather than EITHER/OR. This Feast reminds us that one of the greatest things that the Lord can accomplish is to unite us in His Church, by drawing us into communion with the Apostles and their successors, the Bishops. We are beneficiaries of that handclasp of fellowship shared between Peter and Paul, and in turn we are called to foster and foment fellowship and deep bonds of community among ourselves, among our respective cultures and languages, among our campuses, among the parishes of Northeast and beyond. The Church is at her heart a communion. The Communion of Saints is the fulfillment of what the Church on earth invites us to become here and now.

I want to point out that we have an opportunity in these days to express this truth by our actions. As we send Fr. Justus on his way with heartfelt and profound gratitude, we also welcome a new Parochial Vicar to serve in his stead, Fr. John Rumpza. I extend our warm welcome to him and together we embrace the call to deeper communion as a parish. Our beautiful Catholic Faith allows us to be united across space and time, professing and living for the one Faith.

Let’s finish by pondering a few more words of St. Paul, written very likely from his captivity in Rome: “I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:1-6).

So may it be among us!

~Fr. Howe, Pastor