THE FEAST OF THE HOLY CHIEF APOSTLES SAINTS PETER AND PAUL (JUNE 29TH)

Sts. Peter and Paul, the Binary Foundation of the Church, the Jewish Law and Covenant Theology and the Gentiles Philosophy and Mission, United in the Sacramental Reality of the Body of Christ 

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West) 

INTRODUCTION

On this twenty-ninth day of June, we celebrate with solemn joy the feast of the Holy Glorious and All-Laudable Apostles Peter and Paul, twin luminaries of the Apostolic age. Though they differ in origin, temperament, and ministry, they are united in martyrdom, united in grace, and united in the foundation they laid for the Church that stands to this day.

Saint Peter, the fisherman of Galilee, and Saint Paul, the rabbi of Tarsus, were drawn together by the same Christ: one from the shores of Lake Gennesaret, the other from the streets of Damascus. One bore the keys of the Kingdom (Matthew 16:19); the other bore the sword of the Spirit to the ends of the Gentile world (Ephesians 6:17). Their lives, teachings, and deaths reveal the mystery at the heart of the Church: that the Lord has made one people from the two, Jew and Gentile, united not by blood or custom, but by the blood of Christ and the Spirit of adoption.

ST. PETER: THE FIRSTBORN OF ISRAEL’S HOPE

Simon bar-Jonah, renamed Peter, was called from his nets to be the Rock (petros) upon which Christ would build His Church. A son of the covenant, a Galilean steeped in the traditions of his fathers, Peter’s ministry begins in Jerusalem, preaching to devout Jews of every nation gathered at Pentecost. His epistles resound with the rhythm of the Psalms and the longing of the Prophets, declaring the Church to be “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9), in language once spoken of Israel, now bestowed upon the Israel of God.

Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi (that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God”) was not revealed by flesh and blood, but by the Father. Though he stumbled in fear during the Passion, he was restored in love by the Risen Lord. He fed the sheep, baptized Cornelius the Gentile, and bore witness in suffering unto death, crucified head downward in Rome. In Peter, we behold the Church’s rootedness in the Jewish inheritance: the Law fulfilled, the Covenant continued, the hope of Israel realized in her Messiah.

ST. PAUL: APOSTLE TO THE NATIONS

Saul of Tarsus, trained in the Law, zealous for the traditions of the fathers, became the apostle of grace through the thunder of divine interruption. Christ met him not in synagogue or temple, but on the road… unseating him from zeal, blinding his eyes, and opening his heart to the true Light. His conversion is the Church’s conversion, from law to liberty, from flesh to Spirit.

Paul’s mission was to the nations. He speaks not from Jerusalem, but from Antioch, Athens, Corinth, and Rome. In his epistles, the ancient truths of Israel are translated into the Gentile tongue, which was not diluted, but transfigured. The promises given to Abraham now blossom in all peoples; the Spirit that hovered over Sinai now rests upon all who call Jesus Lord. Paul labored more than them all, not out of pride, but out of love, and died a martyr’s death by the sword, a Roman citizen condemned for the Kingdom.

In Paul, the Gentile inheritance is fulfilled. It is not in opposition to the Law, but in its fulfillment through faith. He teaches us that the wild olive branch is grafted into the cultivated tree (Romans 11), and that Christ has broken down the dividing wall, making peace in His Body.

ONE CHURCH, TWO INHERITANCES

The Orthodox Churches around the world, in East and West, stands as the visible union of Jewish root and Gentile branch. It is not a Church that forgets Moses, nor one that rejects the nations. Rather, in Sts. Peter and Paul we see the whole economy of salvation: the law and the prophets handed on through the apostles, the mystery hidden from ages past now made manifest among all peoples.

St. Irenaeus, the disciple of St. Polycarp (who knew St. John the Apostle), bore witness in the second century that the faith once delivered in Jerusalem was now flourishing “even unto the ends of the earth.” He wrote not in Hebrew or Aramaic, but in Greek and Latin, which is evidence of the Church’s outward breath, without loss of her inward heart.

Likewise, the Church Fathers of the West (Sts. Ambrose, Augustine, Leo, Gregory) all held fast to the faith of the apostles, seeing no contradiction between the synagogue and the ecclesia, but rather a flowering of one into the fullness of the other. The Orthodox tradition, rooted in both Scripture and sacrament, keeps alive the memory that Christ did not start a new religion, but fulfilled the promises given to the patriarchs, and opened the gate to all nations.

We, as inheritors of this Apostolic Faith in the Western lands, must reject any false separation between the Testaments, between Peter and Paul, between Hebrew root and Hellenistic fruit. To be Orthodox is to be grafted into both: to read the prophets in the light of Christ, and to proclaim the Gospel to the world in the tongues of the nations.

Let us then honor these twin pillars. Let us love the faith of the Fathers, the witness of the martyrs, the law fulfilled in Christ, and the Gospel proclaimed to every nation.

HOLY PETER, ROCK OF THE CHURCH, PRAY FOR US!

HOLY PAUL, APOSTLE OF THE NATIONS, PRAY FOR US!

O LORD JESUS CHRIST, KEEP THY CHURCH ONE, HOLY, AND APOSTOLIC!

COLLECT

O Almighty and everlasting God, who didst enkindle the flame of thy love in the hearts of thy holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and through their diverse labors didst establish thy Church in Jewry and among the nations: Grant us, we beseech thee, grace steadfastly to follow their doctrine and example, that we may with them attain unto the crown of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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