A HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF THE HOLY
CHIEF APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL
About the Martyrial Life According to Christ and the Holy Apostles
Brothers and sisters!
Those of us who were present for last night’s Vigil heard how, after His Resurrection, our Lord Jesus Christ restored Saint Peter to the choir of the apostles. During their conversation, the Saviour spoke these words to Peter: Verily, verily, I say into thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.[1] To this, the holy Evangelist John the Theologian adds the following explanation: This spake He (meaning, Christ), signifying by what death he (meaning, Saint Peter) should glorify God.[2] In other words, Saint Peter would be martyred by crucifixion, with his hands outstretched. And, in fact, Saint Peter was crucified, but upside-down, because, still repentant after many years for having thrice betrayed the Lord on the night of His trial and Passion, he counted himself unworthy of the same death as his Master.
The history of our Holy Church teaches us that not only Saint Peter, but all the other apostles except Saint John the Theologian were martyred, and that even Saint John endured many sufferings for Christ.
The Lord had warned the apostles that in the world ye shall have tribulation;[3] nevertheless, this did not prevent them from zealously and bravely spreading the word of the Saviour’s teaching and life, especially the word of His holy Resurrection. The image of their Master -- the image of divine perfection -- was ever before their spiritual eyes, and they remembered how He had told them, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will persecute you also.[4] The apostles understood that if they were to be true disciples of Christ, then they must live for Christ, and that their life must mirror His; and that since Christ died for all, they which live should not live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again,[5] as Saint Paul puts it. Therefore, even prior their martyric death, while they were still in the body on earth, in spirit they led a life both celestial and martyric. The apostles were not terrified by the cruel end that awaited them or anything else they would have to face in life, but rejoiced that the Lord had ordained that they follow in His footsteps. Furthermore, they taught the other Christians to follow their example, as they followed Christ’s. Wherefore I beseech you, Saint Paul writes the Corinthians, be ye followers of me.[6]
This did not mean that a literal death by martyrdom would be the lot of all Christians, but that the level of self-sacrifice of all Christians in living for Christ, and in obeying Christ’s commandments, should approach that of an actual martyrdom. It also meant that such a triumphant life would be rewarded as though it were martyrdom. He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me, and I will love him, and manifest Myself to him,[7] Christ promises. And to this the Apostle Paul adds, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other thing created.[8] Just as death cannot separate a martyr from Christ, so no trial or temptation can vanquish the earnest Christian’s love for the Saviour and fidelity to His commandments. This love and fidelity Christ rewards by His blessed, abiding presence with the Christian in this life, and much more in the next.
Dear brothers and sisters, what a wondrous, perfect example the holy apostles offer us by both their life and death! Therefore, let us not be frightened either by life or death, and let us never surrender to self-pity, despondency, or despair: the devil’s tools in quenching love for Christ and hindering our obedience to the commandments. Believe with certainty, as did the holy apostles, our first and chief instructors in the life in Christ, that there hath no temptation overtaken you but such as is common to the Christian man, and that God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way that ye may be able to bear it.[9] Such being the case, you have no cause either to pity yourself or to despond, much less to fall into despair when you are tempted. Remain steadfast, and Christ will be with you.
If the holy apostles, who underwent such terrible trials, sufferings, and deaths, believed, taught, and lived this truth, then much more should we believe and live it, God helping us. For our temptations and sufferings are as nothing in comparison with those of the apostles, who, although they shared a common nature with us, through Christ triumphed gloriously both in life and death.
O holy, all-praised chief apostles Peter and Paul, and ye other holy apostles, as we celebrate your glorious memory, we cry out to you from the depths of our hearts: Help us, the weak, to live in martyrial fashion according to your teaching and your Master’s amid this adulterous and sinful generation,[10] that the love of Christ may at last be kindled in our cold, unfeeling hearts! Amen.
[1] John 21:18
[2] John 21:19
[3] John 16:33
[4] John 15:20
[5] II Cor. 5:15
[6] I Cor. 4:16
[7] John 14:21
[8] Rom. 8:35; 38-39
[9] I Cor. 10:13
[10] Mark 8:38
