Today, June 29, as our Church celebrates the Solemnity of Peter and Paul, Apostles, we are invited to reflect on a passage from the letter of the apostle Paul to the Galatians (1:15 – – 2:10), entitled "The discussion between Peter and Paul". Our treasure, which follows, is from a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop.
Saints Peter and Paul are celebrated together because they are both considered foundational figures in the early Christian Church and were both martyred in Rome. While they had distinct roles and backgrounds, their martyrdoms, combined with their shared dedication to spreading the Gospel, led to them being honored on the same feast day
St. Peter and St. Paul were, as St. Augustine said, two men who were one man, but it may be truer to say that they were one man who were two, bearing in their dual persons a single purpose with combined strength of mind, body, and voice. Although people tend to think and say freely that two is better than one, the Lord has a way that must be preferred of uniting his friends to him and to each other.
Though Peter and Paul were not martyred on the same day, they lived and died as twin giants for one Church and share a feast day, befitting their friendship and their leadership. There is something wonderful in these two holy heavyweights sharing a feast, forever shouldering each other like brothers in their zeal for the Father.
Saint Augustine was a late fourth century, theologian and philosopher, and Bishop of Hippo, Roman North Africa. He is also a preeminent Catholic Doctor of the Church. His writings influenced the development of western philosophy and western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period.
The Galatians to whom the letter is addressed were Paul's converts, most likely among the descendants of Celts who had invaded western and central Asia Minor in the third century B.C. and had settled in the territory around Ancyra (modern Ankara, Turkey). Paul had passed through this area on his second missionary journey and again on his third. It is less likely that the recipients of this letter were Paul's churches in the southern regions of Pisidia, Lycaonia, and Pamphylia where he had preached earlier in the Hellenized cities of Perge, Iconium, Pisidian Antioch, Lystra, and Derbe; this area was part of the Roman province of Galatia, and some scholars think that South Galatia was the destination of this letter.
