29 June 2016 - start to finish

[ Today's Readings ]

What can we learn from great saints like Peter and Paul? Are they so far out of our league that lessons don't transfer?

They may seem out of our league now, but they didn't start that way.

Neither Peter...

But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (see Matthew 16:23)

..and..

“Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” 
But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” 
And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed (see Luke 22:59-60).

...nor Paul...

Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting (see Acts 9:3-5)

..and..

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God (first Corinthians 15:9).

Neither Peter nor Paul start off as the saints whom we celebrate today. They both have help in becoming those saints.

So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” (see Acts 9:17).

It isn't just help at the beginning. It isn't just being led to Jesus for the initial conversion for which we need help. We need help at every stage and in all that God calls us to do.

“Now I know for certain 
that the Lord sent his angel 
and rescued me from the hand of Herod
and from all that the Jewish people had been expecting.”

From Peter and Paul we learn that God can even work with apparent failure. He can even transform sinfulness and rebelliousness and use us to build his kingdom. We learn to look for all the different ways in which his help comes to us. We do not receive only directly from God himself. He sends his angels to us to free us from the prisons of sin that keep us from mission in our lives.

None of us succeeds in this by flesh and blood. Ultimately, success can only come from the Father.

Simon Peter said in reply,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. 

This is how Peter is transformed into the rock on which God builds his Church. It is also how we build our own lives on the rock of the words of Christ. We receive the revelation of Jesus from the Father.  This revelation is itself success because "this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (see John 17:3).

It makes us strong so that even if we are being poured out like a libation we can finish the compete well, finish the race, and keep the faith.

The Lord stood by me and gave me strength,
so that through me the proclamation might be completed
and all the Gentiles might hear it.

Let us turn to the Father so that he can move us beyond our failures by the revelation of himself and his Son. Let us welcome all the help he sends.

The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.