Homily for the Solemnity of SS. Peter and Paul on Sunday (Year C) June 29, 2025 (For Mass During the Day)
The following transcript of the homily is in the original formatting that was used for the sake of live delivery with all cues, emphasis, and notes included.
Transcript:
“The time of my departure is at hand.” “Know that I love you” Words from Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy and the Gospel of John.
In the Name of the Father + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
It takes 9 months to make a baby.
9 months to form a life for a lifetime
And then at the end, that life makes its departure for a new life after.
I counted, and even with the split in between St. Edward’s had me for around 9 months.
I arrived in June 2024. (1)
And stayed until July. (2)
Then I came back as a deacon in December and the new year came. (3)
January. (4)
February. (5)
March. (6)
April. (7)
May. (8)
June. (9)
St. Edward received me, grew me within itself, nurturing my vocation.
And, like St. Paul said in out second reading: “The time of my departure is at hand.”
And like the end of the lives of St. Peter and St. Paul, I shall be born unto a new life,
A priestly life that shall be offered up and “poured out like a libation” at the altar of sacrifice on a summer’s day, but mine shall be in August.
But, like Peter and Paul, before such a great outpouring could take place,
A man must first be taken in,
– into the Body of Christ,
Which is present both at the universal level,
And at the local level. [POINT TO THE PEWS]
But at either level, the Christ of the Body is the One who ultimately pulls that man in.
Christ pulled in Peter during His earthly ministry,
Revealing Peter godly plans,
Teaching him divine wisdom,
Making him the Rock of the Church,
Giving him power over evil and sickness.
And after His resurrection Christ even pulled Peter back in with forgiveness of the his 3-times denial.
Christ pulled in Paul even while the future Apostle was on a murder mission against the flock and asked him,
“Saul, Why are you persecuting Me?”
Christ still brought Paul into the very Body he sought to destroy and made him the greatest evangelizer for it.
And, thus, after Peter and Paul founded the communities of believers it was also the local churches that pulled them closer,
embraced their leadership,
And allowed these two Apostles to nurture them
as the Apostles grew in their roles,
towards the ultimate completion of their missions,
at the moment of their martyred departures.
And, certainly, it was among the people that they grew in their apostolic roles as they moved from community to community.
Peter grew from being a man who said he did not know the Lord
to being a man who
– walked like the Lord,
– preached like the Lord,
– healed like the Lord,
– lived like the Lord,
– and literally turned his life upside down and died like the Lord,
All for the sake of the people’s conversion to Gospel.
Though lacking children of his own, Paul grew to be the spiritual father of many Galatians and Romans,
Timothies and Tituses,
And it was the Gentiles’s receptivity to the Gospel that inspired him to become the Apostle to them all.
– And we Gentiles are his spiritual descendants.
In all this – Peter and Paul were built up by the people as much as they built up the people.
They were being formed by the people as much they were forming the people.
And they were being prepared by the people as much as they were preparing the people.
They were growing inside the womb of the Bride of Christ as its ministers through taking in the spiritual enrichment of
the same Heavenly Bread and the same Divine Wine
that she took in on a daily basis.
Thus, they lived and worked inside her life-giving chamber,
preparing for the new birth unto everlasting life that was to be their martyrdom.
Now, I am not an Apostle in league with the two great pillars we celebrate this weekend.
And I am not heading to my martyrdom by leaving this assignment. (And hopefully, I am right about that, y’all.)
But certainly I am able to recognized that in the 9 months I have spent among this local Bride of Christ called St. Edward
- you have received my life of ministry,
- you have given growth to me,
- you have formed me
- you have shaped me
- you have been preparing me for a new birth as a priest of God.
And thus I stand,
at eve of my departure,
thankful for all of you as my spiritual mothers and fathers,
for you have given me life.
And it is this life that I shall take with me.
– A life that I shall give to others as I leave one community to embrace another.
(PAUSE)
Peter and Paul came to the end of their ministries in the world.
And I am coming to the end of present ministry at St. Edward.
But just as God brought Peter and Paul to new spiritual birth through of the end of their missions,
God is bringing me to a new spiritual birth through the end of my mission here.
And just as it takes 9 months to make a baby,
And in 9 months you made me a priest-to-be.
And as Peter said to Jesus when he being restored as an Apostle:
St. Edward, know that I love you.
In the Name of the Father + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.