Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"

 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

You are Peter, meaning rock, the foundation - upon which the church will be built.

As long as we acknowledge who Jesus is, we’ll have the key to enter heaven.

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊  

Acts 12:1-11

 About that time

King Herod decided to per­se­cute some members of the Church.  He had James, the bro­ther of John, killed with the sword,   and when he saw how it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.

This happened during the festival of the Unleavened Bread. Herod had him seized and thrown into prison with four squads, each of four soldiers, to guard him. He wanted to bring him to trial before the people after the Passover feast,   but while Peter was kept in prison, the whole Church prayed earnestly for him.

  On the very night before He­rod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound by a double chain, while guards kept watch at the gate of the prison.

 Suddenly an angel of the Lord stood there and a light shone in the prison cell. The angel tapped Peter on the side and woke him saying, “Get up quickly!” At once the chains fell from Peter’s wrists. The angel said, “Put on your belt and your sandals.” Peter did so,  and the angel added, “Now, put on your cloak and follow me.”

 

Peter followed him out; yet he did not realize that what was happening with the angel was real; he thought he was seeing a vision.  They passed the first guard and then the second and they came to the iron door leading out to the city, which opened of itself for them. They went out and made their way down a narrow alley, when suddenly the angel left him.

 Then Peter recovered his senses and said, “Now I know that the Lord has sent his angel and has rescued me from He­rod’s clutches and from all that the Jews had in store for me.”

Peter then found his bearings and came to the house of Mary, the mother of John also known as Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.

 

Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.

 

   ＊＊＊ 2nd Reading ＊＊＊

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18*

 As for me, I am already poured out as a libation, and the moment of my departure has come.   I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is laid up for me the crown of righteous­ness with which the Lord, the just judge, will reward me on that day; and not only me, but all those who have longed for his glorious coming.   

But the Lord was at my side, giving me strength to proclaim the Word fully, and let all the pagans hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.   The Lord will save me from all evil, bringing me to his heavenly kingdom. Glory to him for ever and ever. Amen!

 

 ＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊   

Matthew 16:13-19

 After that Jesus came to Caesarea Philippi. He asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of man is?”  They said, “For some of them you are John the Baptist, for others Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

 Jesus asked them, “But you, who do you say I am?”   Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”   Jesus replied, “It is well for you, Simon Bar­jona, for it is not flesh or blood that has revealed this to you but my Father in heaven.

And now I say to you: You are Peter (or Rock) and on this rock I will build my Church; and never will the powers of death overcome it.

 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and what you unbind on earth shall be unbound in heaven.”

 

  Gospel Reflection：

Ecclesial Coniunctio

with all the primal significance that Peter and Paul hold in the Church, why on earth are their feasts clubbed into a single day, instead of honouring them with separate individual days? Perhaps we can think of two reasons: (1) This feast is more about the Church than about them, and the Church is always a community, not an individual affair.

(2) The Peter-Paul phenomenon is a window into the nature of the Church that remains open and inclusive. They are two ends on a continuum. Peter is all that Paul is not, and vice versa: Peter is fisherman, working class peasant, practically unschooled (only high school diploma), and full of heart (emotion).

Paul, on the contrary, is an intellectual, of noble class, a Roman citizen, Ivy League-schooled, and full of reason. If God chose them both, so must the Church be: open to every sort of human beings. As in the alchemical lingo, a coninuncio: a union of opposites.