First Homily June 29, 2014 The Reassuring Celebration

Sts. Peter & St. Paul – A Reassuring Celebration

acts 12:1-11; 2 tim 4:6-8, 17-18; mt 16:13-19

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul.  It is a day that celebrates the relationship of two men to the early Church, but most of all it celebrates the relationship of these two men to Jesus, “The Christ, the son of the Living God.”  

One of the first things that occurred to me about this feast day is that it is a very reassuring celebration.  It is reassuring even though in the first reading we find Peter chained and in prison.  It is reassuring even though Paul appears to be writing his Eulogy.

There are several reasons it is reassuring.  One reason it is reassuring is because Peter and Paul are so different.  Peter and Paul are different, just like us.  Peter was a fisherman and one of the original 12.  He was one of the first to be called by Jesus.  

Paul was the last to be called.  He was an intellectual.  If his friend Barnabas  had to stand up for him would the Church have accepted him?   

Peter is inconsistent and keeps changing his mind.  Paul is driven and consistent.  They disagree & have public fights with each other & then write about it.

In this difference I find it reassuring.  They were so different but of the same mind, same church, same mission, and together they preached the Gospel. Look around you, how many people do you see just like you.  We are all different. Some may be smart, some may be craftsman, some may caring, some may be cheerful.  God takes you as you are.

A second thing that is  reassuring is that Peter and Paul made mistakes just like us.  They made errors,  they got it wrong, they were not perfect – just like us – and that’s reassuring. 

We have all made mistakes.  But that is what is so great about our God.  Peter denied Christ.  Paul persecuted Christ.  And honestly we do these things everyday.  And just like Peter and Paul, we are forgiven, Christ looked at these men and said I will take what you give me, mistakes and all. Christ says the same thing about us.

Another reassurance I find in Peter and Paul is that just like them, we all have a place Christ’s Church.  Everybody has a role to play, a gift to share and that’s reassuring. God uses our talents and gifts for specific roles to build Christ's Church and spread the Gospel.  We all have something significant to share: Maybe a PSR teacher, Maybe Lector, Maybe as a father or mother teaching about Jesus, Maybe nothing more than making a phone call, Maybe just telling someone Jesus loves them.

This is going to seem a little strange but it’s reassuring that Peter & Paul are both dead.  It is reassuring that they are dead and the Church is ALIVE.  Our faith and the Church is not about Peter and Paul.  Our faith and the Church is not about when things change, Its not about when people or priest move on.  The Church is not the scandals.  Our faith is about our relationship with God through Jesus Christ / His relationship with us.  And that’s the most reassuring thing I know.  Peter & Paul are dead but Christ is alive!!

We are not Peter and we are not Paul but Christ is alive in us and sending us to the world. Each and every one of us, no matter how insignificant we think we are.

Favio Chavez was a music teacher who failed.  The only job he could get was managing a landfill.  This is how God used him. It is the story of the Landfill Orchestra of PARAGUAY. 

In many countries in the world people live in landfills.  They pick through trash for things to recycle and sell or re-purpose for their living.  When Favio Chavez was hired to manage the landfill, he saw the desperate poverty, crime, drugs, and health conditions at the landfill.  Favio had been a music teacher and opened a tiny music school with a handful of his own instruments. But soon, he did not have enough.  He asked a local carpenter who lived in the landfill and salvage there for help to fashion some practice tools to teach his student to play.  

The carpenter turned a pie plate, wooden crate, and a fork into a violin.  He turned a galvanize pipe, bottle caps, and buttons into a saxophone, flutes were made from tin cans, old x-rays and barrels into drums.  With all this trash and castoffs, the students made beautiful music. They have played in some of the greatest music venues.

It was the gifts of Favio, the carpenter, and the kids that God used.  There is a documentary that tells this story called “The Landfill Harmonic.”  In it one professional musician said, I would have never thought trash could make such beautiful music.

Christ gives us all talents, Christ gives us all the ability to make beautiful music for his glory.  Even if we think we are useless like the trash in the landfill.  What we throw away Christ uses to bring us together into a orchestra that is the Church.  Together we play beautiful music. 

In all the ways that Peter and Paul were different, in all the mistakes they made, in the roles they played in spreading the Gospel, we find something that reminds us of us;  A something in us that seeks a relationship with Christ and calls us all to be believers and saints.

AND  IT IS  REASSURING – IT IS  REASSURING - REASSURING

because Peter & Paul were companions of Jesus Christ, the living son of God and we are companions of Christ the living son of God.  We live this companionship through our lives, through our community, THROUGH the word,  and through the Eucharist. 

And. I find these things reassuring.  

           

Let us give thanks to the Lord who is so good and so reassuring.