When you go to Rome the images of Peter and Paul together are everywhere — statues, mosaics, painting, etc. After two long careers as apostles they both ended up in Rome and were martyred there. They are looked upon as foundational to the Church in Rome and the whole Christian enterprise by extension. This is another example of God’s sense of humor since the two of them were very different personalities and didn’t always get along. But in the providence of God we can look on them as two faces of the Church. St. Peter stands for the institutional, the structured part of the Church. He was commissioned by Jesus to provide the rock foundation which would ensure a faithful continuation of the initial proclamation of the gospel. St. Paul symbolizes what we might call the charismatic or the prophetic side of the Church. God continues to operate in the world as new situations and new opportunities open up. The Church can’t get stuck doing the same old, same old but must respond creatively to the new. Both sides, the structured and the prophetic are necessary for the Church to be church.
JUNE292026
By Church Staff
