Homily | June 29, 2026 | Unlikely Saints, Unshakable Church | (Episode 179)

Today the church celebrates two great apostles, Peter and Paul.

One was a fisherman, the other was a Pharisee.

One denied Jesus three times, the other persecuted Christians.

If you had been choosing world leaders for this movement, you probably would not have selected either one of these two.

Yet God did.

That alone should give every one of us tremendous hope, because holiness has never depended upon where you begin.

It depends upon whom you allow to transform you.

We turn to the gospel, we're in Caesarea Philippi.

It was a place filled with temples dedicated to false gods.

It was a city where political power, pagan worship, and worldly influence all came together.

It is there, not inside the temple in Jerusalem, that Jesus asks a very important question.

Who do you say that I am?

Notice that Christianity begins not with a rule, not with a commandment, not even with a miracle.

It begins with a person.

And everything depends on the answer to that one question.

Peter answers, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus immediately tells him that this truth did not come from human intelligence, it came from the Father.

Then Jesus gives Simon a new name, Peter.

In Scripture, whenever God gives someone a new name, he's giving that person a new mission.

Abram becomes Abraham.

Jacob becomes Israel.

Simon becomes Peter.

The name Peter means rock.

Then Jesus says something extraordinary.

Upon this rock I will build my church.

Notice carefully, Jesus does not say build your church.

No, he says build my church.

The church belongs to Christ.

He is the true foundation.

Yet Christ freely chooses to govern his church through Peter and through Peter's successors.

This is why Catholics believe that the Pope is not simply the bishop of a particularly important city.

He is the successor of Peter, entrusted with preserving the unity of the entire church.

Jesus then gives Peter the keys of the kingdom.

And you have to remember that the Jewish people, for them, keys represented authority.

In the Old Testament, the chief steward of the king's household received the keys as a sign that he exercised the king's authority in his absence.

Jesus, the true king, now entrusts his authority to Peter, not because Peter is perfect, but because Christ is faithful.

Then if we turn to the first reading gives us an incredible picture.

Peter, the rock on whom Christ is building his church, is sitting in prison, chained, guarded by sixteen soldiers, facing execution.

If anyone were watching from the outside, they would conclude that the church was finished, it was done.

Its visible leader was about to die.

The enemies of Christ appeared to have won.

But Acts tells us something beautiful.

The church was fervently praying to God for him.

That sentence may be hidden in the first reading.

Peter is rescued by an angel, the chains fall away, the prison doors open, not because Peter is powerful, but because God remains faithful to his promises.

Jesus had already said the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Herod discovered that prisons cannot imprison the church.

Chains cannot stop the gospel.

Kings cannot defeat Christ.

For two thousand years empires have fallen and risen.

Persecutions have come and gone.

Dictators have tried to silence the church.

Scandals have wounded her.

Weak leaders have embarrassed her.

Yet the church remains.

Not because her members are always holy, not because her leaders are always wise, but because Jesus keeps his promises.

That's why today ultimately it's not a feast about Peter or Paul.

It's a feast about the faithfulness of Christ.

And every one of us must sit and answer that same question Jesus asked at Caesarea Philippi.

Not who your parents say he is, not who society says he is, not even who your pastor says he is, but who do you say that he is?

Because the answer to that question will determine the entire direction of your life.

Peter answered correctly.

Then he spent the rest of his life learning what those words truly meant.

May we always live in that same spirit, always searching to really know who God is.

Amen.