Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

Mass during the Day
Lectionary:591

On the very night before Herod was to bring him to trial,
Peter, secured by double chains,
was sleeping between two soldiers,
while outside the door guards kept watch on the prison....

As Saint Luke tells the story, the small group of harassed Christians were still reeling from the martyrdom of the Apostle James, and grieving his loss, when Peter was miraculously delivered from Herod's prison and likely execution. Luke carefully lists the king's extreme measures to confine the Fisherman: four squads of four soldiers were assigned to keep him, and he slept between two guards. But his iron shackles fell off and the angel roused him. In fact, he was all but walking in his sleep as he passed through the iron gate and into the midnight streets of Jerusalem. 

God had once again taken a hand in human affairs and humiliated the best efforts of wicked men to repress the Gospel. "Why do the nations rage...." the elated Christians might have said, singing the Second Psalm:

....and the peoples conspire in vain?

Kings on earth rise up

and princes plot together

against the LORD and against his anointed one:

“Let us break their shackles

and cast off their chains from us!”

The one enthroned in heaven laughs;

the Lord derides them,

This victory, impossible for the Church but child's play in God's hands, is practically God's standard operating procedure, and we do well to expect wonderful things as we announce the Love of God and our belief in human dignity. The nations rage against the witness of the Church as they justify their wars, excessive luxuries, and culture of death. The only things opposing them are the uneasy conscience of honest men and women and our appeals for merciful care of the helpless and just treatment of the powerful. 

Toward the end of his life, as we hear in today's second reading, Saint Paul also celebrated the shielding, guiding hand of God. 

...and I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.

The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat

and will bring me safe to his heavenly Kingdom.

Hundreds of thousands of Catholics are demonstrating once again our confidence in God's presence among in human affairs as we escort the one Blessed Sacrament in procession from four different points in the United States to Indianapolis. Even devout Protestants might wonder What's that all about? 

We know the Lord is with us. Our faith in him has been confirmed and reconfirmed on many occasions. We have known his presence in the happiest moments of our lives, and been reassured of his companionship when we felt the most bewildered and confused. We have been sure of our faith when others raised their idiotic questions about right and left, up and down, male and female. We know where we stand and to whom we belong.