Active Membership Pillar: Engagement in at least one parish ministry

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul who are considered the foundational pillars of the Church. Peter represents the office of the Vicar of Christ (Christ’s representative on earth) and stability of the Church through apostolic succession.  This means you can trace the leadership of the church through the popes back to the apostle St. Peter. 

St. Luke’s Gospel recounts the famous question by Jesus to His apostles “But who do you say that I am?” Inspired by the Holy Spirit, without hesitation, Peter (then Simon) responds: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” and is renamed by Jesus as Peter- the rock on which the Church will stand. Paul represents the mission of evangelization that was entrusted to the Church by Jesus Himself. We know that both Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome during the persecution of Nero between 64 AD and 67 AD. Visitors to Rome can pray at the tomb of St. Peter in St. Peter’s Basilica and pray at St. Paul’s tomb in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls.

This feast is especially significant this year as we mourned the death of Pope Francis and witnessed the election of Pope Leo XIV, the 267th successor of St. Peter. We affirm our belief in the apostolic succession when we pray in the Nicene Creed that we are one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church. In a sermon, on this feast day in 395, St. Augustine of Hippo, concluded with this encouragement to his listeners: “And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles' blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors, their sufferings, their preaching, and their confession of faith.”

Like St. Peter, we acknowledge Christ as the Son of the Living God and honor the labors and sufferings of Saints Peter and Paul by being part of His Church. Each of these men gave everything, including their lives to the Church. What is God inviting you to give? Your talent? Your time by volunteering? Or your treasure to invest in the continued growth of this church community?