Michelangelo Buonarroti (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564) was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest artists in the history of Western art. One day, someone showed him a massive block of marble that other sculptors had rejected because it was too rough, flawed, or ordinary. But Michelangelo accepted it and carved an impressive statue of an angel out of it. When someone asked him how he did it, he said, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” He did not just see a block of stone. He saw the masterpiece already inside, waiting to be revealed. And that is how God sees us and works on us when we cooperate with his grace. When God looks at a sinner, he does not just see a sinner but a saint waiting to be revealed. He chisels the sinner patiently and persistently until the saint comes out of the sinner.
On June 29th, every year, the Church commemorates two great pillars of the Church, Saints Peter and Paul, two saints who could not have been more different. Peter was a fisherman and uneducated in the eyes of the world, while Paul was a scholar of the law, a Pharisee, and fluent in Greek. Peter was one of the apostles who worked directly with Jesus during his public ministry, while Paul met Jesus as the risen Christ in a blinding flash when Paul was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians. Peter’s ministry focused on the Jews, while Paul’s focused on the Gentiles. At some points, Peter and Paul publicly disagreed and challenged each other on their approaches to the ministry. Even in death, they were different; Peter was crucified upside down, while Paul was beheaded by the Roman sword. Peter denied Jesus three times, while Paul persecuted the Church and approved of executions of Christians. And yet, Jesus saw something in both of them. Also, despite their striking differences, the Church celebrates them on the same day.
The scripture passages for today show part of the chiseling process through which God made saints out of the sinners, Peter and Paul. In the Gospel passage, Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter replies: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus says, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.” But a few verses later, Peter tries to stop Jesus from going to the cross, and Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan!” Here we see that the rock is still rough, and so needs more chiseling by Jesus. It is a process.
In the second reading, Paul, at the end of his life, says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” But Paul did not achieve this success by his power; God chiseled and shaped him over the years. He was chiseled in his preaching, prison, and perseverance. He acknowledged the role of the divine chisel in his saintly journey when he said, “The Lord stood by me and gave me strength… The Lord will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.”
My dear friends, what God did for Peter and Paul, he wants to do for us today. He sees the saint inside you and me, no matter what we see and what the world sees in us. God sees what is waiting to be revealed, even if others only focus on our flaws and failures. God is ready to carve away fear, pride, sin, and shame, if we let him. Our resistance is the only thing that can stop God’s work in our life. After Peter failed by denying Jesus, he humbly accepted forgiveness. Despite his great learning, Paul had to let go of pride after his conversion. We must do the same; we must let God work; we must let God chisel, uncomfortable as it may be now; the result is a saint.
In his journal on July 7, 1838, the Danish Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard wrote, “God creates out of nothing. Wonderful, you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he creates saints out of sinners.” The feast of Saints Peter and Paul reminds us that holiness is not about having it all figured out; it is not about having it all put together; it is about letting God shape us no matter who, where, how, what, and why we are now. Let us allow him to chisel away what does not belong and reveal the beauty that is already inside. And when the Church looks back one day, may the Church be able to say about each of us: “There was a saint in that soul, and God set the saint free.” Amen.
Homily for Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul 2025
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