XXIX — FEAST OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL

Presence of God. — O Lord, may the feast of your Apostles strengthen me in faith and consolidate my fidelity to the Church.

Meditation

1 — The feast of the holy Apostles, Princes of the Church, reawakens in the soul attachment to the Church, to Rome, to the Pope.

Today the liturgy places Peter in the foreground, the head of the Apostles, and tomorrow it will speak to us of Paul, Apostle of the Gentiles; and thus it presents to us those who have a share in the Church not only by their labors but also by their blood. Today’s Gospel recalls to us the great day of Caesarea in which Jesus for the first time proclaimed Peter the foundation of the Church: “I say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,” words that have had a grand resonance through the centuries and that, even today, stand to attest the primacy of Peter and of all his successors over all Christianity. Not many little churches, as Protestants claim, but one single great Church: the Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church. One single Church of which the one founder and head is Christ, who willed to have in Peter his representative. “Where Peter is, there is the Church” (St. Ambrose), and that is as much as to say: where the Pope, Peter’s successor, is, there is the Church. Very rightly, therefore, the feast of St. Peter must be considered the feast of the Church, the feast of the Pope; a feast that must reawaken in every Christian soul the deep sense of its belonging to the Church, of its devotion to the Supreme Pontiff. “I am a daughter of the Church!” Teresa of Jesus repeated at the point of death. After having worked so much for God and for souls, this was the only title that made her sure of divine mercy. To be children of the Church, this is our title to salvation, this is our glory, after that of being children of God; or rather, not after but together, since, as the holy Fathers say, “he cannot have God for Father who does not have the Church for Mother” (St. Cyprian). He is not a true Catholic who does not feel the joy of being a child of the Church, who does not vibrate for the Church and for the Pope, who is not ready to renounce personal views in order to “sentire cum Ecclesia,” to feel with the Church always and in everything.

2 — Today’s Communion antiphon repeats a second time the great words by which Jesus constituted Peter foundation of the Church: “And you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.” It is a renewed homage to the Prince of the Apostles, but at the same time a reminder for us. Every Christian, in fact, should be a firm and sure stone upon Christ, one that Jesus can use to support his Church. Evidently, the living stone, the cornerstone par excellence, is Christ and, beside Himself, He has placed his Vicar. But then all the faithful follow: from bishops down to the last baptized person. All - exactly as St. Peter says - are “living stones built upon Him [Christ] to be a spiritual house, a holy priesthood” (1 Pt. 2:5).

You too, then, whoever you are - priest or layman, religious or father of family, simple Christian or humble cloistered soul - you too are called to sustain the Church, just as in a material building not only the great granite blocks but also the humblest bricks contribute to support the house. In a soul of interior life there cannot be lacking that profound apostolic sense which makes it feel its share of responsibility for the good course of the Church, a part it will fulfill first of all by obedience and submission to the directives of the Hierarchy. But this is not enough. If you are a true child of the Church, you cannot be indifferent to her needs, her interests, her sufferings. Today, more than ever, the Church suffers: she suffers in her Vicar who, set as watchman over all Christianity, more than anyone else knows and measures the dangers and struggles pressing on her from every side; she suffers in her bishops, in her priests persecuted, tormented, reduced to impotence; she suffers in her dear dispersed children, like sheep without shepherd; she suffers for errors, for persecution and scandal against her. And you, her child, can you remain indifferent? Suffer with your Mother; pray, work, spend your strength to serve her, to defend her. Put aside your small personal interests and dedicate yourself to the great interests of the Church: with life, with works, but also with silent and hidden immolation.

Colloquy

“O highest and ineffable God, I have sinned and am not worthy to pray to You, but You are able to make me worthy. Punish, my Lord, my sins and do not judge according to my miseries. I offer and give You my body, though little that I can render... If it is your will, let my bones and marrow be crushed for your Vicar on earth, for whom I pray to You... Give him a heart that continually grows in grace, a strong heart to defend the banner of the most holy Cross, so as to make unbelievers sharers, like us, in the Passion and Blood of your only-begotten Son, spotless Lamb.

“O eternal and infinite Trinity, delay no longer, but for the merits of St. Peter, come to the aid of your Bride, the Church. I cry today to You, my Love, eternal God: therefore have mercy through the ages, let this world and your Vicar receive light, so that all the world may follow him... Enlighten also the adversaries of the Church, who resist the Holy Spirit, so that they may be converted to You, my God. Invite and stir their hearts, O inestimable Love, and let your charity constrain You to conquer their hardness. Let them be brought back to You, so that they may not perish. And because they have offended You, God of supreme clemency, punish their sins in me. Behold, then, my body, which I have received from You: I offer it to You. Let it become an anvil for them, so that their faults may be destroyed” (St. Catherine of Siena).

“Hear, O Lord, my poor prayer! It concerns your glory and the good of your Church. It is here, indeed, that all my desires end. Are they perhaps too ready in thinking they can contribute to this purpose? Do not hear me, O Lord, if I should ask You for honors, revenues, riches, or other things that savor of the world. But when my prayers have as their object the honor of your Son, why, O eternal Father, will You not willingly hear one who for You would gladly sacrifice a thousand honors and a thousand lives? Not for me, O Lord, who do not deserve it, but for the Blood and merits of your Son” (cf. T.G. Cam. 1 and 3).