Rescue Me

June 29, 2008
Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.

“Now I know for certain that (the) Lord sent his angel and rescued me.” Acts 12:11

“But who do you say that I am?” Matthew 16:15

Piety

Let us pray: May the moments in out lives reflect the moments in the lives of St. Peter and St. Paul that we share in sacred scripture. Help us, like these two saints, to move from denial and persecution to love in action as we make room in our lives for what is best – your son our Lord Jesus Christ. May our words and deeds reflect their pain, their teaching and their faith in God. Amen.

Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/062908.shtml

Christ asks the question of all questions in our Gospel of Today. Who do we say that he is? We often think of ourselves in terms of people that we know. It is a precious moment of life when we hear another tell us who we are. When I celebrated my 50th anniversary of being a Jesuit, Walter Burghardt was my preacher. As I listened to him, I heard my life described with words that captured the dream of who I wanted to be.

Words were put on that dream that made me say to myself I could like myself. Moments when people tell us who we are capture the poetry of life in ways that are always surprising in the energy for living life to the full they bring. It was not an idle question that Christ was asking of his disciples. Peter in giving his answer caught the attention of Christ in a special way. Peter’s greatness in the kingdom of God began on this day. Christ would build his Church on Peter because of his answer to this question. How do I answer the question? Piety is the answer I give to the question with my life. How is the Church being built up by the goodness of my actions?

Paul by his study found an answer to Christ’s question when he was on the road to Damascus and was asked by Christ why he was persecuting him.

Every Christian brings the presence of Christ. This year we celebrate the evangelizing of Paul. Paul went through his know world sharing the Christ he met in his prayer and in the Disciples of Christ, the Apostles. Paul says his life is being poured out like a libation. Paul after meeting Christ on his road to Damascus spent a good period of time studying Christ and what Christ taught. His study gave birth to a fearless courage that pushed Paul to offer Christ to all the Gentiles.

Action

Action lays the foundation of the words of Christ in our lives. It is worth our while to take a good look at how the good things we have done in the name of Christ still lives on in family and friends. The word of Christ is bound in heaven by our efforts to share his name where we go.

It is important to give our answer to who we say Christ is. Christ is the best of who we are, created in the image and likeness of Christ.

When we find ourselves in Christ, we find the best of ourselves. Christ is the way, the truth and the light of who we are. Christ is morning sun in our lives that pushed away the darkness in the lives of those we serve. We say who Christ is best when we give our lives for the needs of the little ones of life. We make Christ real to our world when we are willing to take his place on the Cross with the problems of life we reach out to solve with his love in us. Christ is the love we have for each other that gives reality to his Mystical Body.