(Please read this Scripture passage first, before the homily.)
We celebrate the Solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul today. This reading concerns Paul; the other two readings at Mass concern Peter. We celebrate Paul as the Apostle to the Gentiles, to those without circumcision, the pagans, and Peter as the Apostle to the Jewish people. On the other hand, did not Peter proclaim the Gospel to the first pagans Cornelius the centurion and his household? Did not Paul start off his career as a Christian preaching to the Jewish people in their synagogues? Did not both Peter and Paul give up their lives for the Gospel in Rome? Did not each proclaim the Gospel where each one was and how God directed each of them? Yes, but in a special way, Peter was sent to the Jewish people and Paul to the pagans.
In the reading for today, Paul has approached the time of his death. He wrote the letter as something of a last will and testament. He was passing on the next generation, represented by Timothy, the task of preaching the Gospel and governing the Church.
Paul said that he had competed well. He had proclaimed the Gospel and led his people: when we come to our last will and testament, will we be able to say the same thing? We may not have the division between Jewish people and pagan people as Paul did, but we have our own divisions. As Paul and Peter preached where God sent them, so likewise do we have to live our faith where God puts us.
We live in the United States of America. Here we have to proclaim the Gospel. The nation is not the Gospel, nor is the nation the Kingdom of God. If we belong to a particular political party, we have to know that the political party is not the Kingdom of God. We have to proclaim the word to all the people in all the political parties. We have to proclaim the word of God to the haves and the have-nots, to the poor and to the rich, to the citizen and to the immigrant, to the Christian and the non-Christian. We have to call them, not to be citizens of a nation, but to be citizens of the Gospel, called to live the faith here, amid pandemic, amid crimes against the weak and poor of society, amid sex trafficking, amid the separation of children from parents, amid all the flaws of individuals. We are to preach and live as Christ crucified, yet risen; as obedient unto death, yet risen for glory.
We must believe that in whoever is elected President the Kingdom of God has not arrived. We must believe and proclaim the Gospel, not political candidates and parties. Like Peter and Paul, we must proclaim the Gospel, not someone else’s agenda.
At the end of his life Paul could say that he had competed well in proclaiming the Gospel and that God would bless him. At the end of our lives, I hope we can say the same thing.