the holy apostles: ss. peter & paul

lately i have been pondering the friendship between peter and john.  they are the two disciples who are most often portrayed together both in the gospels and in acts.  john's affection for peter seems to have exceeded even that for his own brother, james.  and it seems that peter returned the affection.  that would explain, for instance, his concern for the fate of john in the last chapter of the fourth gospel.  but peter and john have no feast day in common  (although there is a gospel for such a feast, shared with mary magdalene, which we read on easter morning:  the resurrection story in the twentieth chapter of john, and an epistle for the feast we might introduce, in the third or fourth chapter of acts;).

but to the feasts of peter, paul gets to come, a sort of new kid on the block.  in january, after the ancient feast of s. peter's chair (called by some the confession of s. peter) there is an octave, the baptism of s. paul (called by some the conversion of s. paul, the some being protestants who are uncomfortable with  apostolic succession or baptismal regeneration.)  and at the height of summer, amidst the celebrations of john the baptist and james the brother of john mary magdalene and before the transfiguration of our lord and the dormition of his holy mother, peter shares a feast with paul.  an odd couple, it seems. that paul is an addition is obvious from the readings for matins.  they are all about peter (with a bit of john, from the third chapter of acts).  paul has his own commemoration on the 30th of july.

but an importantly odd couple for a church that would come to be catholic, not in the sense of ruled by one man who lived in the capital of the empire and sits in peter's chair, but in the sense of embracing all the peoples of the world. this feast  recognizes that it is not just the home boys, the twelve who wandered around galilee with jesus for years, who are called to be apostles, but that such folk, to borrow from a children's hymn, as doctors and queens and sherdesses on the green are also and equally called to be saints of god, are called into the apostolic fellowship.

this feast has another importance of, i think, which is recognized in the traditional icon, a portrait of two very different men embracing.  they are instantly recognizable by the traditions of  iconography:  peter has his trademark blond hair, paul is bald.  we call them saint peter and saint paul, but their friends knew them as rocky and shorty, which is what their names meant.  peter, as is remarked in the fourth chapter of acts, was unlearned, but a passionate follower of his lord.  (and is so often true of passionate followers, given to periods of infidelity.)  paul as he proudly mentions from time to time in his letters, was educated in the best schools of judaism.  but there they are in the icon, embracing, an embrace we celebrate  on 29th july each year.

the insight to the importance of that embrace, i suggest, is provided by john's understanding of the importance of peter.  for much of the church, peter's 'primacy,' as it is called, depends on his 'confession' celebrated on the 18th of january, when we remember jesus' saying, 'thou art peter, and on this rock i will build my church,' a statement which has been used as much for division as building.  but for john, who probably in his gospel says more about peter than does even matthew, the importance of peter is built on that last breakfast scene on the seashore, when jesus asks peter, three times, 'dost thou love me?'  it is peter's love for jesus that qualifies him to feed jesus' sheep.

peter and paul both have spotted histories.  peter right after his 'confession' tries to talk jesus out of the crucifixion, cueing jesus' remarkable statement 'get thee behind me, satan.' peter denied jesus three times during the trial before the crucifixion.  paul  was first famous as saul, who held the coats of stephen's stoners, and who was a sort of prime grand inquisitor.  that makes their embrace even more significant, and it reminds us what sort of love is expected of us.  anyone can love the seemingly perfect, the obvious saints.  but to forgive and to love those who have famously failed is not only more difficult, it is redemptive.  it is the sort of love which lets the unlearned and unfaithful and the torturers become transformed into holy apostles.

98 days and counting later: trinity sunday and after

how do we know "god"?  what do we mean or begin to mean by that three-letter word, these days as often as not profaned by a three-letter abbreviation that is popular with young girls when they see particularly unusual shoes, or receive a surprising tweet?

for the christian church, the answer is the holy one who has self-revealed as three persons, the son whom we have known in the man jesus, the father of the son, and the spirit who proceeds from the father, whose arrival amidst the church we celebrated last week at the festival of pentecost.  and we can know him because he has revealed himself and in the ways that he has revealed himself.

this is dogma,  which we so often forget is not something which and only which must be believed to be "go to heaven," but as even wikepedia notices, is rooted, in a greek word that means the best we can imagine.  so we do the best we can, and use the  the words of the athanasian creed.  if we would be whole, holy,( the concept behind the latin word salvus which transliterates into our english "saved")  what we "need before all things" is the catholic faith.  for us, this is good news:  the holy one, the almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen, shows himself to us as a communion of love.

you know how we have belittled such understanding in our modern, self-centered way of looking at things.  (indeed, has it ever been otherwise?)  the door bell rings, and there's the (undeniably brave and probably sincere) man in the cheap suit and unfashionable tie holding a hand-full of tracts containing the 12-step program to salvation and the niv translation of the gospel according to john.  "are you saved?"   i try to invite such folks in for a nice cup of tea and a discussion of why one would want to be saved.  because i always answer, "yes, but do you know what for?"  the quote from the gospel according to john that makes is so convenient for the man with the tracts is of course "3:16."  i see those numbers on bumper stickers or window decals of sub's and giant pick-up trucks and the usually rather large t-shirts of harley-davidson riders.  it has become a short-hand for our misunderstanding of the good news, a reduction of the whole of the wonders of the creation and sanctification  of the whole of creation, to one of st. anselm's sentenced--although i suspect that few of the people with the bumper sticker/t-shirt theologies would know about the castratti's sentences

eternal life.  that's what jesus tells nicodemus people who believe in the son of god will have.  that's what it says in the final verse, the 15th verse, of the gospel reading for trinity sunday, and of course it is repeated like the theme in a song in the 16th verse.  and the theme returns in the seventh chapter of the gospel, with the third verse:  "and this is life eternal, that they might know god, and jesus christ whom thou  whom thou hast sent."  now jesus said these words in a prayer as he began 'the one oblation of himself once-offered' because he recognized that they would soon experience the same contempt from the world as he did, that their witness to them would cost them their lives.  a martyr is literally, a witness.  so this eternal life would be a mystery from the beginning.  we certainly seem to die.  they words he spoke before this prayer were, 'in the world ye shall have tribulation:  but be of good cheer, i have overcome the world.'

tribulation, indeed.  the photograph at the head of this post is of holy trinity monastery at meteora, in thessaly.  many western christians forget about thessaly after paul's letters.  the church at thessalonika was having tribulation when paul wrote to her, and the tribulation continued.  the monasteries on the tops of the rocks were built to escape, among other tribulations of the world,  pirates.

but be of good cheer.  despite the horrors of the world, and anyone can come up with a list as well as i, the holy one, who is love,  reveals himself to us, not as one who engages in the conflicts which lead to piracy and envy and hatred, but as love:  a community of love.  and so on the sunday after trinity we continue to hear from s. john, the beloved disciple, who listened to the heartbeat of god, these words:  'beloved, let us love one another:  for love is of god; and every one that loveth is born of god, and knoweth god.'  we know god, the holy trinity, a communion of love, by loving.  more than that is not required.

pentecost: the first fruits (of the spirit)

at soup night thursday, which was a fruit salad night in a pun on some of the meanings of the feast of pentecost, a fruit salad served on a bed of newly-harvested grain, we discussed some of the layers of meaning of the feast.  as "scholars" these days are so happy to point out, it started as an agricultural festival, to which they say were "added" religious meanings.  as if harvest is not religious, as if the holy one does not bring from the earth grain to strengthen our heart, as if really religious people do not hold the parts of their lives together--that, to bind back together, being the basic meaning of religion.

the second layer of meaning is the giving of the law on sinai's height, graven on tablets of stone by, as the advent hymn reminds us, by the lord of might.  but ezekiel prophesies that the laws will eventually be graven on our hearts, our living hearts, by the lord of love.  we read, many of us, that prophesie about fifty days ago at the paschal vigil.

and on the feast of pentecost, when it is, as s. luke writes, 'fully come,' suggesting that the events in the upper room in jerusalem is the climax, ezekiel's and joel's prophesies are fulfilled. 

but of course what is true for the church in the first century must be true for us today, and for each of us.  as s. gregory the great reminds us, it is when we ascend to the upper room of our own hearts, in the communion of all the saints gathered about the theotokos, we too wait for the gift of the spirit, and we will not be disappointed.

but there is a smaller part of pentecost that struck me this year, although in many ways it is the most important.  it is the conclusion of the epistle for the feast in the western lectionary:  'we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of god.'

if as s. john reminds us so often in his many writings that we have heard over the fifty days, the most important, indeed the decisive, the definitive, gift of the spirit is love, then it is love which let the church speak in the tongues of all the assembly in jerusalem, and which will allow the church to speak to the world today.   love involves patience, as s. peter's epistles remind us, and waiting, as s. luke reminds us.  when the church speaks in the love of god, she will witness to the resurrection of christ and people will hear the good news of 'the wonderful works of god.'  when she speaks in any other voice, whether it be condemnation or revenge or simply impatience, she stifles the spirit.  how are we doing today?