Solid and Liquid: Homily for the Solemnity of Saint Peter and Saint Paul

We have kind of an unusual circumstance this year.

Instead of celebrating the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time,
we’re celebrating the Solemnity of Saint Peter and Saint Paul,
which always occurs on June 29.

Usually when a feast falls on a Sunday, the feast gets skipped.
It’s rare that a saint’s feast would take precedence over a Sunday.
And when a feast does supersede a Sunday
it’s usually a feast of Jesus, or Mary, or Joseph.
But today the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time gives way
to our remembrance of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.

It’s also unusual that we celebrate two saints on the same day,
especially since those two saints already have other days during the year
on which they’re commemorated.

And so here we have two saints,
who already have other feast days,
being celebrated together,
and replacing the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

That says something.
By giving this feast such prominence
the Church is telling us something about these two people Peter and Paul
and their importance in our lives and in the lives of the entire Church.

The Scriptures give us an insight into what that importance is,
and they also help us to see how the lives of Peter and Paul
make a difference in our own lives.

First we see that Peter and Paul have several things in common.
They were both leaders in the early Church.
Peter was the leader in Jerusalem and ultimately the leader in Rome.
Paul was a leader among the different church communities he established throughout his travels:
Corinth, Galatia, Philippi, Ephesus,
and all of those places he established churches and then later wrote to.

Both Peter and Paul were so influential that they were arrested and jailed.
And so in many ways they led similar lives.

And yet there were some differences in their lives as well.
We can see this in the ways they are described.

Peter is called by Jesus in the gospel today as “the rock.”
“You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.”
And Paul calls himself a libation, he says he’s being “poured out like a libation.”
So you could say that Peter is solid and Paul is liquid.

And I think that’s important.
I think that’s really the key to understanding the meaning
of these two men being celebrated on the same day.
Because they illustrate two important aspects of the Church
that we don’t want to lose sight of.
That the Church itself is at the same time solid and liquid.
Here’s what I mean:

First, Peter was solid, the firm foundation.
He was confident and bold.
He was the spokesperson for the apostles
and he’s the one who was bold enough to declare,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

But this is also the same Peter who is going to say, just a few verses later,
“No, you’re not going to suffer and be killed, Lord.”
And at the Last Supper when Jesus was washing the disciples’ feet,
he is going to say,
“You’ll never wash my feet, Lord.”
And Peter is the one who said,
“I will never deny you.”
You know, Peter wasn’t always on target.
In all of those moments his confidence and passion were clearly visible,
and yet he occasionally misunderstood the message.
Jesus had to correct Peter.
He had to tell Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
“I will go to Jerusalem, I will suffer, I will be killed.”

And at the Last Supper Jesus had to say to Peter,
“Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”
And bold Peter says: “Then Lord, wash not only my feet, but my head and hands as well.”
And after Peter’s three-time denial he asks Peter three times,
“Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me.”

But despite all of Peter’s misunderstandings,
Jesus saw in him what the Church needed.
He saw in him a firm foundation.
Peter was that solid rock upon whom Christ would build his Church.

While Peter is the solid rock, Paul is the libation.
A libation is a drink that is poured out as an offering to God.
Before taking a drink, the Greeks would pour some on the ground
to honor a god or goddess.
Paul thinks of himself here as a libation as he writes from prison.
He is about to die, his life is about to be poured out
for the sake of God.

Peter is the rock, Paul is the libation.
Peter is solid, Paul is liquid.

A rock is solid and firm, but it stays in place.
That is its virtue, that is its strength, but it is also its limitation.

You know, the very remains of Peter are under Vatican Hill,
and the church, St. Peter’s Basilica, rests right on top of his bones.
He is literally and figuratively the rock upon which the church is built.
But the Church was never meant to stay in Rome.

Paul is like a libation pouring out of that rock and flowing through the world,
coursing out among all the peoples.

It’s like the story of Moses striking the rock in the desert
for the Israelites.
Moses struck the rock and water came from it.
Peter is like the rock, and Paul is like the flowing water.

Paul carries the message
to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, to the Philippians,
to the Thessalonians,
and on from there to the ends of the earth.

And yet, he too, recognizes the need to have the rock that is Peter.
In his letter to the Galatians, Paul writes about the times that he met Peter.
Paul tells how he described to Peter
the gospel he had been preaching to the Gentiles.
Paul says he wants to make sure what he was doing is true to the gospel.
Paul understands the importance of having that solid foundation,
and he recognizes Peter as that Rock.

And so Peter and Paul remind us this weekend
through their lives and through the images that describe them
that we as a Church are to be both a solid foundation for the world
and a life-giving libation poured out as an offering to God.

Peter and Paul are different and yet one.

In our own lives we may identify with one more than the other.
We may identify with that solid foundation that never changes,
and the security that comes with that.

We may also identify with the fluidity of our faith,
a fluidity that sees it lived differently in different places at different times.

The world needs the comfort of the solid rock of the Church,
especially in these sometimes chaotic and unsure times.
It’s good to have solid rock under our feet.

At the same time, the world needs to know
that the Church is not some cold edifice of granite, uncaring and unmoving.
The Church is also a libation, a sacrificial offering to God
that cares for the poor, the widow, the orphan,
that stands up for the marginalized and the weak.

And what is true of the Church is only true
because it also true of God.

The Solemnity of Peter and Paul takes precedence today
because of how these two apostles reveal God to us.

It is God who is the rock, and it is God who is the libation.

When the winds of chaos, tragedy, and doubt swirl around us,
it is God who anchors us, who keeps us safe, who gives us a firm footing.
And when we are thirsting for life, for a full life,
it is God who pours out his own Son as an offering
so that we might have life
and have it to the full.

And so today Peter is a reminder of the rock solid foundation of God’s love for us,
never fading, always faithful, ever present.
And Paul is a reminder of how God poured himself out for us,
sacrificing himself until blood and water flowed from his side.

We gather here around this altar to receive that
solid foundation and that life-giving offering,
so that we can be a rock and a libation for the world.

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