Feast of Saint Peter and Paul, June 29, 2014

Written by Fr. Fitz Tuesday, 24 June 2014 15:46

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Peter and Paul, friends or adversaries?

 

They were both. St.Paul had to confront St. Peter over the issue of gentile converts and St. Peter would change his mind on the issue.

God works in God's in God's own ways through humans with clay feet:

The clay feet of Peter: he denied Christ and ran away from the perceived folly of the cross.

The clay feet of Paul: he WAS a pharisee, an accomplice to the murder of Stephen, and he himself as Saul set out to arrest and persecute the new Christians who he despised.

This must be encouraging for you and me, for we too have clay feet.

We should never underestimate what the power of the Holy Spirit can do in our lives, no matter our limited abilities, or wrong directions.

Today in the middle east there are descendants of those early Christians whose faith goes back to the days of the apostles.

They are in great peril.

Syria, Iraq, Lebanon

 are in danger of becoming a new fundamentalist state where there would be no room for Christians. We are reaping the whirlwind now for our previous ignorance of the religious hatreds there that go back all the way to the death of Mohammed!

Several years ago, Vice President Biden suggested for its survival, Iraq be divided into three districts: Kurds,Sunnis, Shites. His was a minority opinion not accepted. It would seem wise now.

On this Feast of the apostles, we pray for the survival of the message that they preached to the gentiles.

[ This is a short message as I prepare to fly out to Omaha for 9 days.]