LIVE CATHOLIC 11: 30 AM |SOLEMNITY OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL Apostles| June 29, 2025

TODAY’S REFLECTION Peter and Paul, the two greatest pillars of the church remain for us models of a faith lived in its totality. Peter is the rock on whom Jesus built his Church and Paul defended it by giving his own life. When Jesus asked his disciples ‘Who do you say that I am?, it was Peter who spoke up and acknowledged that he is ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God’. What matters to Jesus is not who he is to others but who each of us thinks he is. Peter, though faltering many times, will get up to accept Jesus as his Messiah and will proclaim him crucified even at the cost of his very life. Saul, who was determined to annihilate anyone who took the name of Jesus, became a fierce defender of the faith when he personally came in contact with Jesus. He lived Jesus and his gospel to the extent that he was able to proclaim “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”. He reiterates his personal transformation into Christ Jesus when he challenges us thus: “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ”. Perhaps there is no other disciple who identified with Jesus in life more than Paul. Peter and Paul became for us not merely models of faith but persons who dared to leave their ideologies, ambitions and expectations to live and proclaim Jesus. They experienced Jesus personally, lived him radically, resolutely and uncompromisingly preached him and gave their lives to show the world that Jesus their saviour is greater than life! They did everything in him who strengthened them to carry on Jesus’ mission here on earth.