THE BEAUTY OF THE WEAK
O
n 29 June we remember the apostles Peter and Paul. Both were
foremost important for the spread of Christianity and have shaped the
early Christian Community. For that reason, they are considered to be
the founders of the Church.
Yet these are two men who totally differ in character.
Let us look at Peter first. The huge Cathedral Church of St Peter in Rome was
erected over a very small and poor grave which is said to contain the bones of
Peter, a few bones only which originally were laid in a pauper’s grave. The
small Christian community in Rome probably could not afford something
bigger. Only about a hundred years later a memorial was created above this
grave from which the first basilica of St Peter was developed and much later
the present-day church.
The simplicity of the grave under this church seems like a mirror of the
character of the apostle, a man of simple origin, easily enthusiastic but also
changing to be a coward who denied his master, a leader and then weak and
full of remorse, a man who shows his emotions, very human and likeable.
Jesus obviously loved the man and called him ‘cephas’, which means ‘little
rock’, a name which seems somewhat ironic. Yet it was probably this that
made him a leader of the church, that he did not succumb to power but
confessed his weakness.
In this Peter was different from Paul, the learned Pharisee who did know his
Torah and his Jewish Faith, who persecuted the Christians but after his
conversion championed those who came from different cultures, and in the
end he was martyred for the faith which believed in the Resurrection and the
Life, and the Love – of which he wrote in his letter to the Corinthians, His
confession and clinging to the Cross, which is the sign of failure, shows that
he also, like Peter, embraced weakness.
Both these men failed in the end and were martyred, allegedly on the same
day in Rome, one by the sword, the other by crucifixion. Since the fourth
century Christian churches think of them on June 29 th , the day of their death.
Without them these Christians would not have been more than a small band of
sectarians, but the faith spread over the entire world.
They became patron saints to Rome and churches, monasteries and even
towns were called after them, ‘Peter Fires’ were lit, festivals celebrated, often
ordinations took place on that day.
The day was to have kept the memory of these men alive, men who followed
their faith unto death without fear but in the hope of Resurrection.
Brigitte Williams
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