June 29: Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul

True freedom

Acts 12:1-11; Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9; 2 Tim 4:6-8, 17-18; Mt 16:13-19

Freedom. It is one of the most precious and lifegiving qualities we can possess. When we have it, we can feel safe, creative and generous. When we lose it, we can feel endangered, guarded and self-focused.

Freedom is powerful. Adam and Eve were tempted to believe that God was unfairly restricting their freedom. And in a few days, our nation will erupt in celebration to commemorate its founding in a declaration of freedom from colonial rule.

So it’s striking that as the church remembers two of its greatest “founding fathers” on the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, she does so with a series of readings that draw attention to each of them dealing with situations of their own imprisonment and freedom.

In the first reading, we find Peter in prison during Herod’s persecution of the early church. The church members take fervent action to win his release, not with weapons or mob action, but with prayer. Eventually his freedom comes via the intervention of an angel — divine help that neither he nor his supporters can marshal themselves.

Our second reading, from the second letter of Paul to Timothy, was written from Paul’s prison cell in Rome. Here, we do not encounter the take-charge apostle to the Gentiles, boldly striding across the Mediterranean world proclaiming the Gospel. Rather, he is much more pensive and somewhat weary, solemnly reflecting on his fidelity to his mission and noting that he has successfully “finished the race.” He is ready to pass the torch to the next generation.

The freedom coming to Paul is not that his prison door will be sprung open, but rather that his relationship with Christ will allow him to transcend the limits of life in this world and to be with the Lord for eternity.

In choosing these scenes from the lives of Peter and Paul, the church is inviting us to reflect on the fact that the foundation of our faith is not to be constructed out of human effort alone. If the early followers of Jesus were simply a social movement, they could not hope to stand up to the political forces opposing them. They could easily be bound in chains and imprisoned by walls.

“Freedom” in the face of such confinement does not entail a Christian army shattering gates, but the hand of an angel or the love of Christ providing consolation and encouragement. Once that happens, we are often free to act in such a way that we become a force for change.

In some sense, Peter and Paul had already learned this lesson earlier in their lives. Peter, in spite of his strongest human desires, could not avoid being confined by his own fear and shame on the night of Jesus’ arrest. Freedom for him could only come after a newly forged relationship with the risen Christ. Similarly, Paul could only be freed from a murderous hatred of Jesus’ followers by undergoing a conversion that was entirely instigated by Jesus after his resurrection.

We witness confinement in our world in myriad ways. To be sure, many of these confinements are external and the result of human injustice, such as poverty or lack of adequate education, and we ought to strenuously oppose them. But often the strongest chains are interior: hatred, anger, resentment, shame, envy and so forth.

The sinful choices we make are generally rooted in hearts that are confined and hardened. Those sinful choices can accumulate in ways that only further imprison hearts and minds (for example, hate begets hate).

What would you name as the primary source of confinement on your heart these days? It can come from relationships, career choices or past unhealed wounds.

And we can easily succumb to the myth that if we try just a little bit harder, we ought to be able to break free on our own. The church gives us Peter and Paul as powerful witnesses to the contrary. The strength of each lay not in his ability to take self-focused control, but in the ability to trust in his relationship with Jesus Christ. True freedom is measured by that trust, whether it literally opens doors (as with Peter) or not (as with Paul).