O Roma felix, quae duorum Principium
Es consecreta glorioso sanguine:
Horum cruore purpurata caeteras,
Excellis orbis una pulchritudines.
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Behold the hour when the answer which the Son of Man exacted of the Fisher of Galilee re-echoes from the Seven Hills and fills the whole Earth. Peter no longer dreads the triple interrogation of his Lord. Since that fatal night on which, before the first cock-crow, the Prince of the Apostles had denied his Master, tears have not ceased to furrow the cheeks of this same Vicar of the Man-God. Lo, the day when at last his tears will be dried! From that gibbet to which, at his own request, the humble disciple has been nailed head downwards, his bounding heart repeats now at last without fear the protestation which ever since the scene enacted on the brink of Lake Tiberias has been silently wearing his life away. “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you” (John xxi).
Sacred day on which the oblation of the first of Pontiffs assures to the West the rights of Supreme Priesthood! Day of triumph in which the effusion of a generous life-blood wins for God the conquest of the Roman soil, in which upon the cross of his representative, the Divine Spouse concludes His eternal alliance with the Queen of nations!
This tribute of death was all unknown to Levi. This dower of blood was never exacted of Aaron by Jehovah: for who is it that would die for a slave? The Synagogue was no Bride! (Galatians iv. 22-31). Love is the sign which distinguishes this age of the new dispensation from the Law of servitude. Powerless, sunk in cringing fear, the Jewish priest could but sprinkle with the blood of victims substituted for himself, the horns of the figurative altar. At once both Priest and Victim, Jesus expects more of those whom He calls to a participation of the sacred prerogative which makes Him Pontiff, and that for ever according to the order of Melchisedech (Psalms cix. 4). “I will not now call you servants: for the servant knows not what his lord does”: thus says He to these men whom He has just raised above angels at the last Supper. “But I have called you friends, because all things whatever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you (John xv. 15). As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love” (John xv. 9).
Now, in the case of a Priest admitted thus into partnership with the Eternal Pontiff, love is not complete save when it extends itself to the whole of Mankind ransomed by the great Sacrifice. And, mark it well: this entails upon him, more than the obligation common to all Christians, of loving one another as fellow members of one Head, for by his Priesthood he forms part of that Head, and by this very title, charity should assume in him something in depth and character of the love which this divine Head bears towards His members. But more than this. What, if to the power he possesses of immolating Christ, to the duty incumbent on him of the joint offering of himself likewise, in the secret of the Mysteries, the plenitude of the Pontificate be added, imposing the public mission of giving to the Church that support she needs, that fecundity which the heavenly Spouse exacts of her? Then it is, that (according to the doctrine expressed from the earliest ages by the Popes, the Councils and the Fathers) the Holy Ghost adapts him to his sublime role by fully identifying his love with that of the Spouse whose obligations he fulfils, whose rights he exercises. But then, likewise, according to the same teaching of universal tradition, there stands before him the precept of the Apostle. Yes, from throne to throne of all the Bishops, whether of East or West, the Angels of the Churches pass on the word: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church and delivered Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her” (Ephesians v. 25-26).
Such is the divine reality of these mysterious nuptials, that every age of sacred history has blasted with the name of adultery the irregular abandoning of the Church first espoused. So much is there exacted by such a sublime union that none may be called to it who is not already abiding steadfast on the lofty summit of perfection, for a Bishop must ever hold himself ready to justify in his own person that supreme degree of charity of which Our Lord says: “Greater love than this no man has, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John xv. 13). Nor does the difference between the hireling and the true Shepherd end there (John x. 11-18). This readiness of the Pontiff to defend to death the Church confided to him, to wash away even in his own blood every stain that disfigures the beauty of this Bride (Ephesians v. 27), is itself the guarantee of that contract by which he is wedded to this chosen one of the Son of God, and it is the just price of those purest of joys reserved to him: “These things have I spoken to you,” says Our Lord when instituting the Testament of the New Alliance, “that My joy may he in you and your joy may be filled” (John xv. 11).
If such should be the privileges and obligations of the Heads of the Churches, how much more so in the case of the universal Pastor! When regenerated man was confided to Simon, son of John, by the Incarnate God, His chief care was in the first place to make sure that he would indeed be the Vicar of His love: that, having received more than the rest, he would love more than all of them: that being the inheritor of the love of Jesus for His own who were in the world, he would love, as He had done, even to the end (John xiii. 1). For this very reason, the establishing of Peter on the summit of the Hierarchy coincides in the Gospel narrative with the announcement of his martyrdom (John xxi. 18). Pontiff-king, he must needs follow even to the cross his Supreme Hierarch (John xxi. 19-22).
The Feasts of his two Chairs, that of Antioch and that of Rome, have recalled to our minds the Sovereignty by which he presides over the government of the whole world, and the Infallibility of the doctrine which he distributes as food to the whole flock. But these two feasts, and the Primacy to which they bear witness on the sacred Cycle, call for that completion and further sanction afforded by the teachings included in today’s festival. Just as the power received by the Man-God from His Father (Matthew xxviii. 18) and the full communication made by Him of this same power to the visible Head of His Church had but for end the consummation of glory, the one object of the Thrice-Holy God in the whole of His work (John xvii. 4), so likewise all Jurisdiction, all Teaching, all Ministry here below, says Saint Paul, has for end the consummation of the Saints (Ephesians iv. 12) which is but one with the consummation of this sovereign Glory: now, the sanctity of the creature and the glory of God, Creator and Saviour, taken together, find their full expression only in the Sacrifice which embraces both Shepherd and flock in one same Holocaust.
It was for this final end of all Pontificate, of all Hierarchy, that Peter, from the day of Jesus’ Ascension, traversed the earth. At Joppa, when he was but opening the career of his Apostolic labours, a mysterious hunger seized him: “Arise, Peter, kill and eat,” said the Spirit, and at that same hour, in symbolic vision were presented before his gaze, all the animals of earth and all the birds of heaven (Acts x. 9-16). This was the gentile world which he must join to the remnant of Israel on the divine Banquet-board. Vicar of the Word, he must share his vast hunger. His preaching, like a two-edged sword, will strike down whole nations before him. His charity, like a devouring fire, will assimilate to itself the peoples. Realising his title of Head, the day will come when as true Head of the world, he will have formed (from all mankind, become now a prey to his avidity) the Body of Christ in his own person. Then like a new Isaac, or rather, a very Christ, he will behold rising before him, the mountain where the Lord sees, awaiting the oblation (Genesis xxii. 14).
Let us also “look and see,” for this future has become the present, and even as on the great Friday, so now we a ready know how the Drama is to end. A final scene all bliss, all triumph: for herein deicide mingles not its wailing note to that of Earth’s homage, and the perfume of sacrifice which earth is exhaling does but fill the heavens with sweet gladness. Divinised by virtue of the adorable Victim of Calvary, it might indeed be said, this day that earth is able now to stand alone. Simple son of Adam as he is by nature, and yet nevertheless true Sovereign Pontiff, Peter advances bearing the world: his own sacrifice is about to complete that of the Man-God, with whose dignity he is invested (Colossians i. 24). Inseparable as she is from her visible Head, the Church likewise invests him with her own glory (1 Corinthians xi. 7). Far from her now are the horrors of that midday darkness which shrouded her tears when, for the first time, the cross was up-reared. She is all song, and her inspired Lyric celebrates “the beauteous Light Eternal that floods with sacred fires this Day which opens out to the guilty a free path to Heaven” (Hymn of Vespers).
What more could the day of the Sacrifice of Jesus Himself ? But this is because by the power of this other cross which is rising up, Babylon becomes today the Holy City. The while Sion sits accursed for having once crucified her Saviour, vain is it on the contrary for Rome to reject the Man-God, to pour out the blood of his Martyrs like water in her streets. No crime of Rome’s is able to prevail against the great fact fixed forever at this hour: the cross of Peter has transferred to her all the rights of the cross of Jesus, leaving to the Jews the curse, she now becomes the True Jerusalem.
Such being then the meaning of this day, it is not surprising that Eternal Wisdom should have willed to enhance it still further by joining the sacrifice of Paul to that of Peter. More than any other, Paul advanced by his preachings,the building up of the body of Christ (Ephesians iv. 12). If on this day holy Church has attained such full development as to be able to offer herself in the person of her visible Head as a sweet smelling sacrifice, who better than Paul may deservedly perfect the oblation, furnishing from his own veins the sacred libation? (Colossians i. 24; 2 Corinthians xxi. 15). The Bride having attained fullness of age (Ephesians iv. 13), his own work is likewise ended (2 Corinthians xi. 2). Inseparable from Peter in his labours by faith and love, he will accompany him also in death. Both quit this Earth, leaving her to the gladness of the divine Nuptials sealed in their blood while they ascend together to that eternal abode in which that union is consummated (2 Corinthians v.).
* * * * *
Since the terrible persecution of the year 64, Rome had become for Peter a sojourn fraught with peril, and he remembered how his Master had said to him, when appointing him Shepherd of both lambs and sheep: “Follow me” (John xxi.). The Apostle, therefore awaited the day when he must mingle his blood with that of s0 many thousands of Christians whom he had initiated into the faith, and whose Father he truly was. But before quitting earth, Peter must triumph over Simon the Magician, his base antagonist. This heresiarch did not content himself with seducing souls by his perverse doctrines. He sought even to mimic Peter in the prodigies operated by him. So he proclaimed that on a certain day he would fly in the air. The report of this novelty quickly spread through Rome, and the people were full of the prospect of such a marvellous sight. If we are to believe Dion Chrysostom, Nero seems even to have entertained at his court this wondrous personage who pledged himself to soar aloft in mid-air. More than that, the Emperor would even with his own presence honour this rare sight. The imperial lodge was reared upon the Via Sacra, where the scene was to be enacted. But cruel for the impostor did this deception prove. “Scarce had this Icarus begun to poise his flight,” says Suetonius, “than he fell close to Nero’s lodge which was bathed in his blood.”
The gravest writers of Christian antiquity are unanimous in attributing to the prayer of Peter, this humiliation inflicted on the Samaritan Juggler in the very midst of Rome where he had dared to set himself up as the rival of Christ’s Vicar. The disgrace of the heresiarch, as well as his blood, had fallen on the Emperor himself. Curiosity and ill-will but needed, therefore, to be combined, in order to attract personally upon Peter an attention that might prove disastrous. Moreover, be it remembered there was yet another danger, and to this Saint Paul alludes, namely the peril of fake brethren. To understand this term and justly to appreciate the situation, we must bear in mind how inevitable are the clashing of certain characters in a society so numerous as was already that of the Christians in Rome, and how discontent is necessarily caused to vulgar minds when sometimes existing circumstances demand higher interests to be exclusively consulted, in the always difficult question of choosing persons to offices of trust, or to special confidence. These things well borne in mind, it will be easy to account for what Saint Clement, an eye-witness of the Apostle’s martyrdom, attests in a letter to the Corinthians, viz. That “rivalries and jealousies” had a large share in the tragic end brought about, through the suspicions at last conceived by the authorities, against “this Jew.”
The filial devotedness of the Christians of Rome took alarm and they implored Saint Peter to elude the danger for a while by instant flight. “Although he would have much preferred to suffer,” says Saint Ambrose, Peter set out along the Appian Way. Just as he reached the Capuan gate, Christ suddenly presented himself, seemingly about to enter the City. “Lord, where are you going?” cried out the Apostle. “To Rome,” Christ replied, “to be there crucified again.” The disciple understood his Master. He at once retraced his steps, having no thought now save to await his hour of martyrdom. This Gospel-like scene expresses the sequel of our Lord’s designs upon the venerable old man. With a view to founding the Christian Church in unity, He had extended to His disciples His own prophetic name of the “Rock,” or “Stone” (Petrus). Now, to the Cross itself, was He about to make him His participator.
Rome having replaced Jerusalem must likewise have her Calvary. In his flight, Peter dropped from his leg a bandlet which a disciple picked up with much respect. A monument was afterwards raised on the spot where this incident occurred: it is now the Church of Saints Nereus and Achilles anciently called Titulus fascioloe, the Title of the handlet. According to the designs of Providence, the humble fasciola was to recall the memory of that momentous meeting at the gates of Rome where Christ in person stood face to face with His Apostle, the visible Head of His Church, and announced that the hour of his sacrifice on the cross was at hand. From that moment, Peter set everything in order with a view to his approaching end. It was at this time he wrote his Second Epistle, which is as it were his last testament and loving farewell to the Church. In it he declares that the close of his life is near, and compares his body to a temporary shelter, a tent, which one takes down, to journey further on. “The laying away of this my tabernacle is at hand, according as our Lord Jesus Christ also has signified to me” (2 Peter i. 14). These his words are evidently an allusion to the apparition on the Appian way. But before quitting this world Peter must provide for the transmission of his pastoral charge and for the needs of Holy Church, now about to be widowed of her visible Head. To this he refers in these words: “And I will do my endeavour that after my decease you may also often have, whereby you may keep a memory of these things” (2 Peter i. 15).
Into whose hands are those keys to pass, which he received from Christ, as a sign of his dominion over the whole Flock? Linus had been for more than ten years the Auxiliary of the holy Apostle in the midst of the Christians of Rome. The still further increase of the Faithful induced Peter to give Linus a colleague in the person of Cletus. Yet on neither of these two did the choice of Peter fall at this solemn moment in which he was about to fulfil the promise contained in his farewell letter to provide for the continuance of his ministry. Clement, whose nobility of birth recommended him to the consideration of the Romans, while at the same time, his zeal and learning merited the esteem of the Faithful, was the one on whom the Prince of the Apostles fixed his choice. During these last days still remaining to him, Peter imposed hands on Clement, and having invested him with the Episcopal character, enthroned him in his own Chair, declaring his intention to have him for his Successor. These facts related in the Liber Pontificalis are confirmed by the testimony of Tertullian and Saint Epiphanius.
Thus the quality of Bishop of Rome entailed that of Universal Pastor, and Peter must needs leave the heritage of the divine keys to him who should next occupy the See he held at the moment of death. So had Christ ordained, and a heavenly inspiration had led Peter to choose Rome for his last station: Rome prepared long beforehand, by Providence, to universal Empire. Hence, at the moment when the Supremacy of Peter passed to one of his disciples, no astonishment was manifested in the Church. It was well known that the Primacy was and must necessarily be a local heritage, and none ignored the fact that Rome herself was that spot made choice of by Peter, long years before. Nor after Peter’s death did it ever occur to the mind of any of the Christians to seek the centre of Holy Church either at Jerusalem, or at Alexandria, or at Antioch, or elsewhere. The Christians in Rome made great account of the paternal devotedness he had lavished on their city. Hence their alarms, to which the Apostle once consented to yield.
Saint Peter’s Epistles so redolent of affection, bear witness to the tenderness of soul with which he was, to a very high degree, gifted. He is ever the Shepherd all devotedness to his sheep, fearing above all else anything savouring of a domineering tone. He is ever the Vicar effacing himself so that nothing may transpire save the dignity and rights of Him whom he represents. This exquisite modesty is further increased in Peter by the remembrance which haunts his whole life, (as ancient writers say), of the sin he had committed and which he continues to deplore up to these closing days of extreme old age. Faithful ever to that transcending love of which his divine Master had required him to make a triple affirmation before confiding to him the care of His Flock, he endured unflinchingly the immense labours of his office of Fisher of men. One circumstance of his life which relates to this its closing period reveals most touchingly the devotedness wherewith he clung to Him who had vouchsafed both to call him to follow Him, and to pardon his fragility. Clement of Alexandria has preserved this detail, as follows.
Before being called to the Apostolate, Peter had lived in the conjugal state. From that time forth, his wife became but a sister in his regard. She nevertheless continued in his company, following him about from place to place in his various journeys, in order to render him service (1 Corinthians ix.). She was in Rome while Nero’s persecution was raging, and the honour of martyrdom thus sought her out. Peter watched her as she stepped forth on her way to triumph, and at that moment, his solicitude broke out in this one exclamation: “Oh! Bethink you of the Lord.” These two Galileans had seen the Lord, had received Him into their house, had made Him their guest at table. Since then, the Divine Pastor had suffered on the cross, had risen again, had ascended into Heaven, leaving the care of His Flock to the Fisherman of Lake Genezareth. What else then would Peter have his wife do at this moment, save to recall such sweet memories and to dart forwards to Him whom she had erstwhile known here below in His Human Features, and who was now about to crown her hidden life with immortal glory!
The moment for entering into this same glory came at last for Peter himself. “When you will be old,” mysteriously had his Master said to him, “you will stretch forth your hands, and another will gird you, and lead you where you would not” (John xxi.). So Peter was to attain an advanced age. Like his Master, he must stretch forth his arms on a cross. He must know captivity and the weight of chains with which a foreigner’s hand will load him. He must be subjected, in its violent form, to death from which nature recoils, and drink the chalice from which even his Divine Master Himself prayed to be spared. But like his Master also, he will arise strong in the divine aid, and will press forwards to the cross. Lo, this oracle is about to be accomplished to the letter. On the day fixed by God’s decree, pagan power gave orders for the Apostle’s arrest. Details are wanting as to the judicial procedure which followed, but the constant tradition of the Roman Church is that he was incarcerated in the Mamertine Prison.
By this name is known the dungeon constructed at the foot of the Capitoline hill, by Ancus Martius, and afterwards completed by Servius Tullus, from which it is also called Carcer Tullianus. Two outer staircases, called the Steps of Sighs, led to this frightful den. An upper dungeon gave immediate entrance to that which was to receive the prisoner and never to deliver him up alive, unless he were destined to a public execution. To be put into this horrible place, he had to be let down by cords through an opening above, and by the same was he finally drawn up again, whether dead or alive. The vaulting of this lower dungeon was high and its darkness was utter and horrible so that it was an easy task to guard a captive detained in it, especially if he were laden with chains.
On the twenty-ninth of June, in the year 67, Peter was at length drawn up to be led to death. According to Roman law, he must first be subjected to the scourge, the usual prelude to capital punishment. An escort of soldiers conducted the Apostle to his place of martyrdom outside the city walls, as the laws required. Peter was marched to execution, followed by a large number of the Faithful drawn by affection along his path, and for his sake defying every peril. Beyond the Tiber, facing the Campus Martins there stretches a vast plain which is reached by the bridge named the Triumphal, by which the city is put in communication with the Via Triumphalis and the Via Cornelia, both of which roads lead to the north. On its further side from the river the plain is bounded on the left, by the Janiculum, and beyond that in the background, by the Vatican hills whose chain continues along to the right in the form of an amphitheatre. Along that bank of the Tiber the land is occupied by immense gardens, which three years previously had been made by Nero the scene of the principal immolation of the Christians, just at this same season also. To the West of the Vatican Plain and beyond Nero’s gardens, was a circus of vast extent, usually called by his name, although in reality it owes its origin to Caligula, who placed in its centre an obelisk which he had transported from Egypt. Outside the Circus, towards its furthest end, rose a temple to Apollo, the protector of the public games. At the other end, the declivity of the Vatican hills begins, and about the middle, facing the Obelisk, was planted a turpentine tree well known to the people. The spot fixed upon for Peter’s execution was close to this said turpentine tree. There, likewise, was his tomb already dug. No other spot in all Rome could be more suitable for so august a purpose.
From remotest ages, something mysterious had hovered over the Vatican. An old oak, said by the most ancient traditions to be anterior to the foundation of Rome, was there held in great reverence. There was much talk of Oracles heard in this place. Moreover, where could a more choice resting place be found for this Old Man who had just conquered Rome, than a mound beneath this venerated soil, opening upon the Triumphal Way and the Cornelian Way, thus uniting the memories of victorious Rome and the name of the Cornelii which had now become inseparable from that of Peter? There is something supremely grand in this taking possession of these places by the Vicar of the Man-God. The Apostle having reached the spot and come up to the instrument of death, implored of his executioners to set him on it, not in the usual way, but head downwards, in order, said he, that the servant be not seen in the same position once taken by the Master. His request was granted, and Christian tradition in all ages renders testimony to this fact which moreover adds further evidence to the deep humility of so great an Apostle. Peter, with outstretched arms, prayed for the city, prayed for the whole world, the while his blood flowed down on that Roman soil, the conquest of which he had just achieved. At this moment Rome became for ever the new Jerusalem. When the Apostle had gone through the whole round of his sufferings, he expired, but he was to live again in each one of his Successors to the end of time.
* * * * *
“The crowd is pressing more than usual, clad in festal garb. Tell me, my friend, what means this concourse: all Rome is swaying to and fro, mad as it were, with joy? Because this day recalls a memory of a triumph the most gorgeous: Peter and Paul, both of them Victors in a death sublime, have ennobled this day with their blood. Tiber, henceforth sacred, since he flows betwixt their tombs set on either bank, was witness of the cross and of the sword. Double trophy, double riches, claiming homage of the Queen-City. Double solemnity on one day! Wherefore, behold the people of Romulus, in two streams crossing one another, athwart the city! Let us haste our speed that we may be able to share in the two feasts. Let us lose not one of these sacred hymns. First, let us pursue the way which leads to the Adrian bridge. Beyond gilded roofs, mark the spot where Peter reposes. There, at early dawn, the Pontiff offers his first vows. Hastening on and reaching the left bank, he comes presently to Paul’s tomb, there to offer once again the Holy Sacrifice. So remember, thus is honoured this twice sacred day.”
It is Prudentius, the great Christian poet of the fourth century who has just come forward in the above words as witness of the enthusiasm with which the solemnity of the Apostles was celebrated in Rome at his time. Theodoret and Saint Asterius of Amasea tell us that the piety of the Faithful on this feast was not less demonstrated in such distant Churches as those of Syria and Asia. In the codes which bear their name, Theodosius and Justinian lay down or repeat the prohibition of toil or trade, of law-suits or profane shows on the day of the Martyrdom of the Apostles, the “Masters of Christendom.” In this respect even schism and heresy have not been suffered in the East to prevail over gratitude and love. Nearer home too, yes, in the very midst of the ruin brought about by the pretended reform in Protestant England, its Book of common Prayer still marks this feast of June 29th and a fast too, on its Vigil. Nevertheless, by a strange phenomenon, little in keeping with the tendencies of the Establishment, Saint Paul is discarded on this day, leaving all the festal honours to Saint Peter of whom only is mention made in the day’s service: of him whose successor the Bishop of Rome is, whereas this same Anglican calendar retains no memory of Saint Paul save the feast of his Conversion, January 25th.
The poem of Prudentius cited above brings to light a certain degree of difficulty formerly experienced by the Roman people in order not to lose any part of the double station proper to this day. The distance was great indeed, from the Vatican Basilica to that on the Ostian Way, and the two streams of people, to which the poet alludes, prove significantly that a great number of pilgrims, from the impossibility of their being present at both Masses, were reduced to the necessity of making choice of one or other. Added to this difficulty, let us remember that the preceding night had not been without fatigue, if at that same period, as certainly was the case in later ages, the Matins of the Apostles begun at dusk had been followed by those of the Martyrs at the first cock-crow. Saint Gregory the Great, wishing therefore to spare his people and clergy an accumulation of services which turned rather to the detriment, than to the increase of honour paid to the two Princes of the Apostles, put off, till the morrow, the Station on the Ostian Way with its Solemn Commemoration of the Doctor of the Gentiles. Consequently, it is not surprising that, save the Collect common to the two Apostles, the formulae chanted at the Mass which is about to follow, relate exclusively to Saint Peter: this Mass was formerly, only the first of the day, namely the one which was celebrated in the early morning at the Tomb of the Vicar of the Man-God.Epistle – Acts xii. 1‒11
In those days, king Herod stretched forth his hands to afflict some of the Church, and he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. Seeing that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to take up Peter also, Now it was in the days of the Azymes, and when he had apprehended him, he cast him into prison, delivering him to four files of soldiers to be kept, intending after the Pasch to bring him forth to the people. Peter therefore was kept in prison; but prayer was made without ceasing by the Church to God for him. And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains; and the keepers before the door kept the prison. Behold an Angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shined in the room, and he striking Peter on the side, raised him up, saying: “Arise quickly,” and the chains fell off from his hands. And the angel said to him, “gird yourself and put on your sandals,” and he did so: and he said to him, “Cast your garment about you and follow me.” Going out he followed him, and he knew not that it was true which was done by the Angel, but he thought he saw a vision. Passing through the first and the second ward, they came to the iron gate that lead to the city, which of itself opened to them. Going out, they passed on through one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. Peter coming to himself said, “Now I know in very deed that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews.”Thanks be to God.
Dom Prosper Gueranger:
It would be difficult to insist more than does today’s Liturgy, on the episode of Peter’s captivity in Jerusalem. Several Antiphons and all the Capitula of this Office are drawn from there. The Introit has just sung the same, and here our Epistle comes giving us every line of that which seems to interest the attention of Mother Church in so special a manner today. The secret of her preference can easily be divined. This Festival celebrates the fact that Peter’s death confirms the Queen of the Gentile world in her august prerogatives of Sovereign Lady, Mother and Bride. But then, the starting point of all this greatness of hers was the solemn moment in which the Vicar of the Man-God, shaking the dust from off his feet (Luke x. 11) over Jerusalem, turned his face westwards and transferred to Rome those rights that the Synagogue had repudiated. Now it was on quitting Herod’s prison that all this happened. “And going out of the city,” says the Acts, “he went into another place” (Acts xii. 17). This other place, according to the testimony of history and tradition, is no other than Rome, then about to become the new Sion where Simon Peter arrived some weeks afterwards. Thus, catching up the Angel’s word, the Gentile Church sings this night in one of her Responsories at Matins: “Peter, arise, and put on your garments: gird yourself with strength to save the nations, for the chains have fallen from off your hands.”
Just as in by-gone days Jesus slept in the barque that was on the point of sinking, so Peter was sleeping quietly on the eve of the day doomed for his death. Tempests and dangers of all kinds are not spared, in the course of ages, to Peter’s successors. But never is there seen on the barque of Holy Church the dire dismay which held aghast the companions of Our Lord on that vessel tossed as it was by the wild hurricane. Faith was then lacking in the breasts of the disciples, and its absence was that which caused their terror (Mark iv. 40). Since the Descent of the Holy Ghost, however, this precious faith, from which all other gifts flow, can never be lost in the Church. Faith it is that imparts to Superiors the calmness of their Divine Master. Faith maintains in the hearts of the Christian people that uninterrupted prayer, whose humble confidence silently triumphs over the world and the elements, yes even, over God Himself. Should the barque of Peter near the abyss, should the Pilot Himself seem to sleep, never will Holy Church imitate the disciples in the storm of Lake Genezareth. Never will she set herself up as judge of the due means and moments for Divine Providence, nor deem it lawful for her to find fault with Him who is watching over all: remembering that she possesses within her a better and a surer means than any other, of bringing to a solution, and that without display or commotion, crises the most extreme: never ignoring, that if intercessory prayer but falter not, the Angel of the Lord will surely come at the given hour to awaken Peter and break his chains asunder.
Oh how far more potent are a few souls that in their unobtrusive simplicity know how to pray, than all the policy and all the soldiers of a thousand Herods put together! That small community assembled in the house of Mary, Mother of Mark (Acts xii. 12) were few indeed in numbers, but there, day-by-day and night-by-night, arose one continual prayer. Fortunately that fatal naturalism was unknown there, which under the specious pretext of not tempting God, refrains from asking of Him the impossible whenever there is question of the Church’s interests. This pest of naturalism is a domestic enemy harder far to grapple with at a critical moment than the crisis itself! To be sure, the precautions taken by Herod Agrippa not to suffer his prisoner to escape his hands, do credit to his prudence, and certainly it was an impossible thing asked for by Holy Church when she begged the deliverance of Peter at such a moment: so much so indeed, that even those who were praying, when their prayers were heard, did not at first believe their own eyes! But the prevailing force of their strength was just in that, namely, to hope against all hope (Romans iv. 18). for what they themselves knew to be holy foolishness (Acts xii. 14-15) that is to say, to submit in prayer the judgement of reason to the sole views of Faith!Gospel – Matthew xvi. 13‒19
At that time Jesus came into the quarters of Caesarea Philippi, and He asked His disciples saying, “Who do men say the Son of Man is?” They said, “Some, John the Baptist, and other some Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” Jesus said to them, “But who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answering said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven, and I say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it; and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you will bind on earth will be bound also in heaven, and whatever you will loose on earth will be loosed also in heaven.”Praise be to you, O Christ.
Dom Prosper Gueranger:
In the Epistle, Rome has celebrated the day on which Judah’s obstinacy in rejecting the Vicar of the Man-God won for the Gentile Church the honours of the Bride. See how in joyous gratitude she now recalls the memory of that blissful moment when first Earth hailed the Spouse by His divine title: “You are Christ, Son of the Living God!” O happy word awaited for centuries, and for which John the Baptist has been preparing the Bride! But the Precursor himself had quitted the world ere its accents awakened an echo in Earth too long dormant. His role was to bring the Word and the Church face-to-face. After that he was to disappear, as indeed he did, leaving the Bride to the spontaneity of her own effusions. Now is not the pure gold of the Divinity with which His Head is adorned the first of the Beloved’s excellencies pointed out by the Bride in the Sacred Canticle? (Canticles v. 11; 1Corinthians xi. 3) Thus, therefore, does she speak on the plains of Caesarea Philippi, and her organ is Simon Bar-Jonah, who for having thus rendered her heart’s full utterance, remains for ever the “Mouth of Holy Church.”
Faith and love with one accord, hereupon, constitute Peter Supreme and most ancient summit of Theologians, as Saint Denis calls him, in his book of the Divine Names. First verily, both in order of time and in plenitude of dogma, he resolves the problem, the insolvable formula of which had stretched to the utmost the theology of Prophetic times. “The words of him that gathers the peoples,” said the wise man, “the words of the son of him who scatters truths, the vision which the man spoke with whom God is, and who being strengthened by God abiding with him said: ‘I have not learned wisdom... Who has ascended up into heaven, and descended, so that he may know the name of Him who made the earth? And what is the name of His Son? Who can tell it?’” (Proverbs xxx. 1-4). Then, after this mysterious exordium leading up to the mysterious question, the wise man without pursuing it further, concludes with a confiding reserve yet mingled with timidity: “Every Word of God is fire-tried: he is a buckler to them that hope in him. Add not anything to his words, lest you be reproved and found a liar” (Proverbs xxx. 5-6).
What then, Peter, are you more wise than Solomon? And can that which the Holy Ghost declared to be above all science be confided as a secret to a poor fisherman? Yes, even so. None know the Father, but the Son (Matthew xi. 27), yet the Father Himself has revealed to Simon the Mystery of His Son, and the word which attests it may not be gainsaid. For that word is no lying addition to divine Dogma: it is the oracle of Heaven which, passing through human lips, raises its happy interpreters above the level of mere flesh and blood. Like Christ, whose Vicar it causes him to become, his one mission is to be Heaven’s faithful echo here below (John xv. 15), transmitting to men only what he received (John xvii. 18) — that is, the Word of the Father (John xvii. 14). Here we have the entire Mystery of the Church, at once of Heaven and of Earth, and against which Hell may not prevail.
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O PETER, we also hail your glorious tomb! Well does it behove us, your chosen sons of the West, to celebrate with faith and love the glories of this day. If all nations are moved at the tidings of your triumphant death, if all tongues proclaim that from Rome perforce must the Law of the Lord come forth to the whole world, is it not because this death of yours has turned Babylon into that City of divine oracles hailed by the son of Amos in his prophecy? (Isaias ii. 1-5). Is it not because the mountain prepared in distant ages to bear the House of the Lord begins to peer from out the mist, and now stands forth in full daylight to the eyes of the nations? The site of the new Sion is forever fixed, for on this day is the cornerstone laid (Isaias xxviii. 16) and Jerusalem is to have no other foundation than this tried and precious Stone.
Peter, on you must we build, for fain are we to be dwellers in the Holy City. We will follow our Lord’s counsel (Matthew vii. 24-27) by raising our structure upon the rock so that it may resist the storm and may become an eternal abode. Our gratitude to you, who has vouchsafed to uphold us, is all the greater since this our senseless age pretends to construct a new social edifice which it would fix on the shifting sands of public opinion, and hence realises nothing save downfall and ruin! Is the stone rejected by our modem architects any the less head of the corner? And does not its strength appear in the fact (as it is written) that having rejected and cast it aside, they stumble against it and are hurt, yes, broken? (1 Peter ii. 6, 8). Standing erect amid these ruins, firm upon the foundation, the rock against which the gates of Hell cannot prevail, we have all the more right to extol this day on which the Lord has, as our Psalm says, established the Earth (Psalms xcii. 1). The Lord did indeed manifest His greatness when He cast the vast orbs into space and poised them by laws so marvellous that the mere discovery of them does honour to science. But His reign, His beauty, His power, are far more stupendous when He lays the basis prepared by Him to support that temple of which a myriad worlds scarce deserve to be called the pavement. Of this immortal day did Eternal Wisdom sing, when divinely foretasting its pure delights, and preluding our gladness, he thus led on our happy chorus: “When the mountains with their huge bulk were being established, and when the earth was being balanced on its poles, when he established the sky above, and poised the fountains of waters, when he laid the foundations of the earth, I was with him, forming all things; and was delighted every day playing before him at all times; playing in the world, for my delights are to be with the children of men” (Proverbs viii.).
Now that Eternal Wisdom is raising up on you, Peter, the House of her mysterious delights (Proverbs ix.). Where else could we possibly find Her, or be inebriated with her chalice, or advance in her love? Now that Jesus has returned to Heaven and given us you to hold His place, is it not henceforth from you that we have the words of Eternal Life? (John vi. 69). In you is continued the mystery of the Word made Flesh and dwelling among us. Hence, if our religion, our love of the Emmanuel hold not on to you, they are incomplete. You yourself also having joined the Son of Man at the Right Hand of the Father, the cultus paid to you on account of your divine prerogatives reaches the Pontiff, your Successor, in whom you continue to live by reason of these very prerogatives: a real cultus, extending to Christ in His Vicar, and which consequently cannot possibly be fitted into a subtile distinction between the See of Peter, and him who occupies it. In the Roman Pontiff, you are ever, Peter, the one sole Shepherd and support of the world. If our Lord has said: “No one comes to the Father but by Me” (John xiv. 6), we also know that none can reach the Lord, save by you. How could the rights of the Son of God, the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, suffer in such homages as these paid by a grateful Earth to you? No, we cannot celebrate your greatness without at once, turning our thoughts to Him, likewise, whose sensible sign you are, an august Sacrament, as it were. You seem to say to us, as before to our fathers by the inscription on your ancient statue: CONTEMPLATE THE GOD WORD, THE STONE DIVINELY CUT IN THE GOLD, UPON WHICH BEING FIRMLY FIXED I CANNOT BE SHAKEN! (1 Peter ii. 25).Today is the principal patronal feast of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, a Clerical Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right. Its members are priests who do not take religious vows but work together for (1) the formation and sanctification of priests by way of the liturgical books approved by Pope John XXIII in 1962, and (2) the pastoral deployment of the priests in the service of the Roman Catholic Church. See http://www.fssp.org/
Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Argenton, St. Marcellus, martyr, who was beheaded for the faith of Christ together with the soldier Anastasius.
At Genoa, the birthday of St. Syrius, bishop.
At Narni, St. Cassius, bishop of that city, of whom St. Gregory related, that he permitted scarcely any day of his life to pass without offering the victim of propitiation to Almighty God, and he was well worthy to do it, for he distributed in alms all he possessed, and his devotion was such that abundant tears flowed from his eyes during the holy sacrifice. At last, he came to Rome on the birthday of the Apostles, as was his yearly custom, and after having solemnly celebrated Mass and given the Lord’s body and the kiss of peace to all, he departed for heaven.
In Cyprus, St. Mary, mother of John, surnamed Mark.
In the territory of Sens, St. Benedicta, virgin.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
