The Church can testify that God's grace was not ineffective in Paul, or in Peter. Let us ask their intercession that we, too, may be fruitful, faithful coworkers in the vineyard of the Lord.
We commemorate the two great fathers in the faith of the Roman Church together for a reason.
Saints Peter and Paul share a feast day, June 29, as they shared the same faith and the same priesthood with and to Christ the Lord. They labored to found the Church of Rome, and both remain there to this day, Peter buried beneath the main altar in St. Peter's Basilica and St. Paul's tomb is beneath the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls.
Both are patron saints of the Marian Congregation.
Crucial differences
But there are crucial differences between these two men, these two servants and friends of Christ the Lord. Peter, who had once been Simon the fisherman, a sinful man telling the Lord to depart from his boat (see Lk 5:8), was the Rock.
"Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." - Mt 16:17-19
Paul, who had once been Saul, the Pharisee and persecutor of Jesus in His Body, the Church, was now the Apostle to the Gentiles:
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. - 1 Cor 15:3-10
The Church can testify that God's grace was not ineffective in Paul, or in Peter. Now, these millennia later, we look back and celebrate the blessed memory of the fathers in the faith of the Church of Christ in Rome, obedient servants of Jesus Christ and sons of the eternal Father, willing collaborators in the workings of the Holy Spirit. Let us ask their intercession that we, too, may be fruitful, faithful coworkers in the vineyard of the Lord.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us!
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