Newsletter – Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. Year C.

Did you notice in the first reading that, whilst Peter was in prison, ‘the whole Church kept on praying incessantly for him’? This constant prayer played its part in Peter’s being freed from the chains which bound him, the shackles which fettered him. Prayer of the community was essential to his being freed from prison.

What are the shackles or chains which fetter the successor of St Peter? What prison walls need to be shattered so that he can preach the marvels of God in ways which affect the hearts of humanity? We know prayer of the community, i.e., of us, will be essential to his being freed – from what? A Pope could be imprisoned by a distorted or impoverished idea of ‘the Church’.

In the Gospel, our Lord says to Simon son of Jonah: ‘You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church’. ‘My church’ – the church desired by our Lord, not a church designed by all too earthly ambitions, a church whose structure owes much to the Roman empire, and later to Euro-centric models spanning the last millennia or so.

May the Church, the Church of the third millennium, be unshackled from the chains of various historical eras so that the Pope, in giving an account of his ministry to the Lord will be able to say with St Paul, ‘I have fought the good fight to the end,’ by doing my best to heed your call ‘rebuild my Church’.