28 June 2025 – Solemnity of Saints Peter & Paul (At the Vigil Mass)

by Dcn Lazarus Jonathan

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, an individual horse can pull a load of about 3,500 kilograms. Likewise, we think two horses can pull a load of 7,000 kilograms (2 x 3,500). Actually, the two horses together can pull 12,000 kilogram load. That is more than 5,000 kilograms more than they can pull individually.

Jesus knows His church. It is not a story of individual accomplishment but many, many, many have given their lives for the church to grow for what it is today. And the two persons that we honour today are Saints Peter and Paul.

First, we see that Peter and Paul had several things in common. They were both leaders in the early church.

Peter in Jerusalem and then later a leader in Rome.

What about Paul? Paul was also a leader among the different church communities he established. 

Both Peter and Paul were so influential that they were a threat to the authorities and they shared the same misery. They were both arrested, both were jailed and eventually martyred.

However, there were also differences in both their lives.

Peter is called by Jesus in the Gospel today or in tomorrow’s text, you will see him mentioned as the Rock. And Paul says he has been poured away as a libation. So you could say that Peter is solid and Paul is liquid.

These differences illustrate two important aspects of the church, that the church itself is both solid and liquid. The remains of Peter are under Vatican Hill and Saint Peter’s Basilica. He is literally and figuratively the rock upon which the church is built.

But the church was never meant to remain in Rome.

Paul is a libation and flowing out among the peoples in the world. Paul carries the good news to not only to the Jews but to the non-Jews, that is you and me. We must thank Paul for being able to have this faith that we are having.

Today, Peter and Paul remind us through their lives and through the images that describe them, that the church is to be both a solid foundation for the world and lifegiving libation poured out as an offering to God.

In our own lives, we may identify ourselves with the solid and liquid aspects of them.

We may identify with the solid foundation that never changes and the security that comes with it. 

We may also identify with the fluidity of our faith. A fluidity that sees it lived differently in different places and at different times. The world needs the comfort of the solid rock of the church, especially in challenging and chaotic times.

At the same time, the world needs to know that the church is not some cold structure of granite, uncaring and unmoving.

The church is also a libation, a sacrificial offering to God that cares for the poor and the needy. A church that stands up for the marginalised and the weak. 

When chaos, tragedy and doubt confronts us, it is God who anchors us, who keeps us safe, who gives us a firm footing.

And when we are thirsting for life, it is God who pours out His own Son as an offering so that we might have life. And have it to the full.

Peter is a reminder of the rock-solid foundation of God’s love for us. Never fading, always faithful, ever present.

And Paul is a reminder of how God poured Himself out for us, sacrificing Himself until blood and water flowed from His side.

We gather here to receive the solid foundation and the life-giving offering so that we ourselves can be a rock and a libation for the world.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this is the challenge for each and every one of us.

We always praise the great Saints Peter, Paul and so many other great Saints. What about you and me? Don’t you see yourselves as saints in the world today? Is there any doubt? Is there any doubt that you are saints, living saints in the world?

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let me tell you a true story.

A few months before he died in 1979, Bishop Fulton Sheen was interviewed by a reporter. 

‘Your Excellency,’ he asked, ‘Who inspired you?’

And surprisingly, he thought he was going to say a name of a Saint or a Pope or some clergy. No, not one of these was mentioned. To the reporter’s surprise, he said it was an 11 year-old Chinese girl.

When the communist took over China in the late 1940s, they imprisoned a priest in his own house. Looking through the window of his house, he was shocked to see the soldiers enter the church and break open the tabernacle, scattering the sacred hosts on the floor. The priest knew there were exactly 32 sacred hosts.

As the soldiers entered the church, a young girl who had been praying at the back of the church quickly hid herself.

After the soldiers left, the girl did something amazing. She knelt down and prayed for forgiveness. She then entered the sanctuary, knelt down, bent over to pick up the holy communion, one holy communion with her tongue. Not with her fingers, with her tongue.

And you know what she did? Every night, for 32 days, she spent an hour in prayer and received holy communion with her tongue. She knelt down and licked it up with her tongue. Every day for 32 days.

On the 32nd night, after consuming the last host that was scattered, she accidentally made a slight noise, enough to awaken a soldier. She ran, but the soldier caught her and hit her with a rifle butt.

The priest heard the commotion but it was too late. From the window of the rectory, he saw the girl being killed by the soldier. 

Bishop Fulton Sheen said that story inspired him so much that he promised to spend at least one hour each day before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

 

If an 11-year-old girl can do what she did for her faith, what about you and me? Are we any lesser? You and I have learned so much. We have come so often for Masses. We have lived a life of Catholics. Cannot we be called saints?

My dear brothers and sisters, don’t doubt. You are all Saints and live that saintly life out there in the world.

Amen.

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