Peter and Paul: Missionary confidence in the Lord

What makes for "Catholic" faith? According to the earliest councils of the Church, fundamental to faith in Christ is acknowledgement of Jesus as both Son of Man and Son of God. This was the faith of Peter, making him the "Rock" upon which the Lord would build his Church (Mt 16). Yet not too long after Jesus affirmed the faith of Peter he would remind the Apostles of the need to pick up their crosses and follow him in order to fulfill their missions. As we know from the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of Paul, both Peter and Paul would experience trials, imprisonment, and ultimately martyrdom. Yet their confidence in the Lord's constant presence in their lives, guiding them in their mission, would give them the ability to devote both their lives and deaths to witnessing to Jesus. Christian disciples today can have the same confidence as they fulfill their own missions of preaching Christ, in whom humanity and divinity met for the salvation of the world.

-Given at the St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel (UST-St. Paul) on June 29, 2020, Solemnity of SS. Peter and Paul