The Mission of Peter and Paul
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The Missions of Peter and Paul
a. The book of Acts is about two men: Peter and Paul, with the first chapters dedicated primarily to Peter, and the later chapters dedicated primarily to Paul
b. We tend to think of spreading our faith as an item on our spiritual to-do list that we rarely get around to.
i. After all, where do you find the time? And when does the opportunity present itself to “try to be a missionary”?
c. But Peter and Paul didn’t think of it that way – in a sense, it wasn’t like they had to wake up in the morning and say, “Well, today I’d better try to get some evangelization done.”
i. They were constantly evangelizing – that was what they did because it was who they were.
1. They were Christians – saved and chosen by Christ. In a real sense, in their minds, there was nothing about them except that.
a. Paul said he was no longer himself, but it was Christ who lived in Him; he also said he was resolved to know nothing but Christ crucified.
d. In the minds of Peter and Paul, there was nothing for them to do, and nothing for them to talk about, except that which related to the Lord.
i. Of course, Paul knew how to make tents, and Peter knew how to fish.
1. But even that only mattered insofar as it could be directed to the Gospel.
e. Now when your whole life – everything – is wrapped up in one thing, one idea, one person: how can you help talking about it? How can the people around you not know about it?
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So what’s the first steps to evangelization?
Make your whole life about Jesus! Then you won’t be able to talk about anything without your faith coming into it – you’ll be constantly bringing up the Lord, because He’s part of everything you think and everything you do.
i. In other words, the first step to evangelization is to be a real Christian.
The Second step is to always seek to know, understand love and care for the people in your life better.
ii. If you show me you really know me, understand me, accept me unconditionally and care for me, then I will be far more likely to be interested in the faith you profess as a Catholic.
iii. Are we living these two steps – would others say so?
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Peter was sent to evangelize the Jews and Paul the Gentiles.
a. And, in a sense, there’s a double-task of evangelization today as well.
i. The Jews represent those who mistakenly think they’re knowledgable and living their faith.
ii. The Gentiles represent those completely outside the Church.
b. Now what’s interesting is that the greatest resistance to the gospel, at least in the Book of Acts, came from those who were fellow Jews with the Apostles.
i. They were the heirs of the promise; they had the prophets, and the promise of the messiah. Jesus had lived and worked amidst the chosen people.
ii. But they were content with what they had – and they didn’t want somebody calling them to live their own faith more perfectly, more consistently, more radically.
c. So too, we live in a Church where countless people in our own churches identify themselves as faithful Catholics; even though they never pray, they don’t know the Scriptures, they have very little reverence for the Sacraments, and they reject the moral and doctrinal teachings of the very Church they profess to be members of.
i. Here, the only way to witness is to gently but clearly point out that there is an inconsistency in the way these people claim to live their faith:
1. Peter and Paul told the Jews: if you believe in the Scriptures, you should believe in Jesus and dedicate your lives to Him.
2. We are called to say to our fellow Catholics: if you believe in the Church, you should believe in what the Church teaches and dedicate your lives to that truth.
d. And don’t be surprised if people don’t like it when you ask how their claim to be a Catholic lines up with the way they actually live.
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Mission to the Gentiles – (and to the Secular World)
a. One of the most famous moments of St. Paul’s missionary career is when he preached to the Greeks in the Areopagus. There, he began by quoting their own poets and their own religious practices, showing how these fragments of spiritual insight ultimately led to the true God of Jesus Christ.
i. In other words, Paul began by referencing something he knew they understood.
b. So too, with contemporary atheism, or agnosticism, or religious pluralism, it’s not enough to quote Scripture to people.
i. You have to be aware of the basic philosophical ideas out there, and you have to know how to respond to them.
1. This is why the Catholic Church has always emphasized the importance of philosophy – because it’s the only evangelical common ground we have with people who don’t recognize God at all.
c. So a Catholic, to be an effective missionary, does need to know how to help people make sense of their universal experience – help them ask and answer the questions, “Where do we come from? Who made everything? Why is there order instead of chaos? Is there any purpose to human life?”
i. That kind of readiness takes some effort and some practice – but St. Peter tells us it’s our obligation to “always be ready to give an answer to someone who asks us the reasons for the hope that is in us.” (I Peter 3).
ii. And if we’re going to take the gospel to the world, we have to be willing to engage in those kinds of conversations.
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Failures and Successes
a. The final point to make about Peter and Paul’s missionary example is that it was filled with both successes and failures.
i. Some people converted. Some were mildly interested, but wouldn’t commit. Some joined up for a while, then left. Some became violently angry.
b. Peter and Paul were both martyrs – which suggests that they didn’t exactly convince everybody, that they didn’t find some magical technique which irresistibly led people to convert.
c. But wherever they went, they were willing to talk about Jesus. And because of that, the Church has swelled to the four corners of the earth.
i. And there are still a lot of people, both in the Church and out of it, who have not really committed to Christ. And a lot of them are relying on you, and your witness, to give them the opportunity.