For Sunday the 29th of June, 2025 (Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles)
As we gather for worship Sunday on the day the Church has set aside to remember St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles, the readings remind us of their service of the Gospel. Under divine inspiration, St. Peter boldly confesses Jesus to be, “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). St. Paul, our Lord’s instrument to proclaim the Gospel to the Gentiles, contends against every effort that would nullify the Gospel by requiring works in addition to faith. The first reading records both of these servants of our Lord working to the same end at the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem. There they powerfully argued against any effort to place the yoke of the Law on Gentiles, a yoke, Peter says, even the Jews themselves had been unable to bear. Thus through these two apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, the Lord Jesus preserved the truth of the Gospel that salvation is by grace through faith for Christ’s sake.
