The last words of Jesus to Peter were; ‘Follow me’ (Jn 21:22). After this, there remained no doubts in the mind of Peter. He followed the Lord ‘by becoming obedient to the point of death- even death on a cross’ (Phil 2:8). Christ founded his Church on this rock called Peter. The Lord gave it the promise that the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
But another young Jew was not aware of this promise. His name was Saul. His ignorance prompted him to ‘kick against the goads’ (Acts 26:14). And it did hurt him because he was kicking against none other than Jesus Christ. As a result he fell into a blindness that did not permit him to see anything even though his eyes were open (Acts 9:8). When Ananias was told to go and heal Saul, he was disturbed as he was aware of what kind of a person Saul was. The Lord had to convince him, saying; ‘Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel. I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name’ (Acts:15-16).
Saul was broken into pieces as he fell on Christ the living stone. He experienced the feeling of getting crushed under the pressure of the stone that fell on him (Mt 21: 44). What followed was a resurrection, but it was not old Saul. It was Paul. It was a total and complete transformation in name and substance. It was similar to what Simon son of John experienced when he decided to follow the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
We have a first hand account of how Paul went through unimaginable hardships for the sake of Christ’s name (2 Cor. 11:23-28). He also testified something more important. ‘Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?………..For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to-come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom 8: 35-39)
Jesus was talking about the same love when he had his final conversation with Peter. ‘Simon son of John, Do you love me more than these?’. He asked the same question not once, but thrice before giving Peter the final command to follow him. When the Church celebrates the feast of these two saints, who regarded everything else as rubbish so as to gain Christ (Phil3:8), on the same day, our hearts must feel the pain of a world that has separated itself from the love of God in Christ Jesus. We know that faith, hope, and love abide, but the greatest of them is love (1 Cor 13:13). May the merciful Lord bless us with the faith and hope to remain steadfast in this love so that we could embrace the crosses this world is offering us in our journey towards martyrdom, the most noble of heavenly gifts with which Peter and Paul were blessed.
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