Acts 12:1-11 / 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18 / Matthew 16:13-19
The following are some of the famous people in history: Thomas Edison, Ludwig van Beethoven, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, and Archbishop Fulton Sheen.
There is something common in all these people.
Surprisingly, it is not that they were top students or that they were outstanding when they were young.
On the contrary, they were written off and cast aside, to be thrown into the rubbish heap of life.
For example, his teacher wrote a note and told Thomas Edison to give it to his mother. The note read: Your son is too stupid to be taught.
His mother decided that she herself would be his teacher. Thomas Edison would grow up to become one of the greatest inventors, and one of his inventions was the electric bulb.
Similarly, Albert Einstein dropped out of elementary school at age 15, but he went on to become a great scientist.
Ludwig van Beethoven was told by his teacher to forget about music and that he will never be able to compose anything.
Mark Twain also dropped out of school at an early age, but he went on to become one of America's greatest writers.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the famous TV evangelist in the 1950s, was told by his teacher then he would never become any kind of great speaker.
These are just some of the famous people in history who don't seem to have any talents or gifts when they were young.
But later on in life, they made an impact, that the world would acknowledge their greatness.
They may be called late bloomers, but bloom they did, and they bloomed to make the world better and beautiful.
Today the Church celebrates the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the two great pillars of the Church.
We may think that these two saints are like two peas in a pod, and if we were to give names to a pair of twin boys, the obvious choice would be to name them Peter and Paul.
Peter and Paul may seem to give us an impression of unity, but in fact, they were more of an incompatibility.
They were more like oil and water, and their differences go deeper than of oil and water.
That fact is that initially, they would have wished the other to be dead.
St. Paul, when he was Saul, was part of the mob that stoned Stephen, the first martyr, to death.
And following that, king Herod started persecuting certain members of the Church, as we heard in the 1st reading.
He beheaded James, the brother of John, and when he saw that this pleased the crowds, he targeted Peter and had him put into prison.
The Church then prayed fervently for Peter, and he was miraculously rescued from the prison by an angel.
By then Paul had become the No. 1 enemy of the Church as he relentlessly persecuted Christians and he even went as far as Damascus to capture Christians.
But it was there on that road to Damascus that something dramatic happened to him and then things changed drastically.
So initially, Paul was the hunter and Peter was the hunted; Paul was the persecutor and Peter the persecuted.
They were on opposite and opposing sides. Paul had the political force to carry out his persecution, but Peter had the spiritual power for his protection.
But even after Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, he and Peter did not immediately become friends, and they also did not see eye to eye on Church matters.
They were as different as oil and water and they even had their differences recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.
And in Galatians 2:11-14, Paul even called Peter a hypocrite in his dealings with the Gentiles.
It was rather strange that Jesus would choose these two men who were far from perfect or even suitable to be the two pillars of His Church.
Yet, that also showed that the Church is both divine and human – that there is a spiritual power guiding and working through her human instruments.
Although in life, St. Peter and St. Paul had their differences and shortcomings, it was in death that they were united in a common goal and mission.
Both died in Rome as martyrs. St. Peter was crucified upside down and St. Paul was beheaded, and that showed that their lives were not for their own glory but for the glory of God.
This feast of Saints Peter and Paul teaches us that despite the differences and failings of personalities and characters, the Church can still be united in a common goal and mission.
Even now in the Church, there are some who are conservatives and some who are liberals; some are traditional and some want to be modern; some want discipline and others want freedom.
Yes, the Church is like a mixture of oil and water, and yet we, like St. Peter and St. Paul, are called to rise above our differences just like oil floats above the water, and be united in a common goal and mission.
As we heard in the gospel, Jesus promised that the gates of the underworld can never hold out against the Church.
But we also must be reminded that our differences must not give the opportunity to the underworld to tear us apart from within.
Rather, like St. Peter and St. Paul, let us be united in love for Jesus and for one another.
St. Peter and St. Paul showed that in their lives they loved Jesus, and hence in love they also accepted the other, even if they did not agree totally with the other.
Just as they were united in life by the love of Jesus, so were they united in death, and now they are united in glory.
It was the love of Jesus that made Saints Peter and Paul rise from their weaknesses and bloom with love.
Likewise, let us be united in love for Jesus, so that whether in life or in death, the gates of the underworld will never tear us apart.
And may we bloom with the love of Jesus, so that the world will be better and beautiful.