Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles Mt 16,13-19

“Never say never!” This is a saying that many of us are familiar with, and it is certainly not wrong.

I think about Peter and Paul and what brought them together. They were different people; they only met a couple of times. They had in common that they were apostles – albeit in another way. The common thing is that they were martyrs. But the commonality is, I think, that they would probably subscribe to the saying “Never say never!”

I’ll summarize what we know. Peter was outstanding. Even today’s Gospel passage (Mt 16:13-19) testifies that he sometimes knew how bulls-eyeball’s-eye. Some theologians conclude that it was with Peter that Jesus had the most to say. But he also learned how to hit it completely wrong. At one point, Jesus called him Satan, a tempter with no understanding… Peter explicitly used the word “never.” He promised Jesus that he would never leave him, to which Jesus had to tell him that he would betray him three times before morning. At the Last Supper, Peter said: “Lord, you will never wash my feet!” When Jesus explained what was going on, Peter turned around and wanted to wash not only his feet but also his head and whole body. Peter certainly would have had no problem signing our saying, “Never say never!”

I can’t find any statement in Paul in which he explicitly said any “never.” But he was a man who was fiercely convinced that this new sect-that is, the Christians-needed to be silenced, punished, and put in prison. Destroy it. People like Paul would not admit that one day they would preach the complete opposite and stand on the other side. But all it took was one particular moment and years of searching for their place. But even Paul would sign us up: “Never say never!”

If I were heading toward a conclusion now, that would be enough. Many of us – and perhaps all of us – have had moments when we have let others down. We’ve experienced times when we’ve had to say no, even when we were sorry, AND most importantly, we’ve experienced times when we’ve added lines and scars to our life stories that we can’t erase. That is when we let ourselves down. But Peter and Paul – like so many people throughout history – are hopeful that one can still go on and improve. In our day, it is no small thing to be reminded of such a simple truth. For today we are much more willing to change everything around us – we have many options for doing so – we expect change from others, we can back out of marriage, out of school, out of a job… if we don’t like something. But it’s not all that common that we want to change ourselves, to work on ourselves. Therefore, one could stop here and point to Peter and Paul as those who changed, bringing great blessings to whole generations.

But I won’t stop here. In the Gospel, we heard how Jesus promised Peter he would be the rock on which the Church would stand. In doing so, Jesus knew Peter, knew of his weaknesses. But he trusted him. Despite everything, Jesus believed Peter.

I was reading a commentary on the Bible, particularly the first chapters on the creation of the world and man. The author of the article, Rémi Brague, took great pains to emphasize the message of those pages: God believes in man. That is, not that man thinks and ought to believe in God. But that God believes in man. That’s why he gave us the earth – in the hope that we won’t destroy it, that’s why he gave us life, that’s why he gave us free will – the ability to choose good or evil, that’s why even after the first humans are expelled from paradise, they are offered salvation – in the hope that they will cooperate. God believes in man despite knowing what they are like and what we are like.

Can we also believe in man? I would be more cautious here. We can have hope. We can hope that man will be put on good paths; we should try to find the good that can be cooperated with. But many historical events warn us that we cannot just naively believe in man. We cannot rely on the fact that being human; one will necessarily grow into a good person. That is why it is valuable to remind ourselves that God – not men and man, but God – believes in us. This is an invitation that awaits a response.

And here’s one more note. Peter and Paul discovered in Jesus the center of their lives and the center of their selves. Peter’s confession, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!” can be seen as a confession to which he returned even after his falls. As a confession that kept him on his feet. And Paul wrote: “To me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” We can see clearly in him – and in other sayings – that Christ became the checkpoint, the center, and the direction of his life. In such a case, people can be believed. In such a case, they seek not themselves but the greater good. Then they are answering the call of God’s faith in us.

We will pray for the church in today’s Prayers of the Faithful. Let us also remember that we may be faithful to what we have come to know as good and earnestly seek the right center and centering of our lives. That we may be trusted, that God Himself may trust us.