St. Peter the Apostle
A Homily on the Feast of St. Peter the Apostle
Mr. Tiomthy Wilson, Postulant
“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Today, Mother Church bids us commemorate Saint Peter the Apostle — the man of Galilee, the fisherman called by Jesus, the disciple who faltered and yet was restored, the Apostle who became a rock not by his strength, but by his confession.
Let’s look again at our Collect for this feast day, which begins with a petition that sets the tone for the entire celebration:
“O Almighty God, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst give to thy Apostle Saint Peter many excellent gifts, and commandedst him earnestly to feed thy flock...”
This prayer reminds us that what we celebrate today is not primarily Peter himself, but what Christ did in Peter — what Christ gave, and what Christ commanded. You see, the greatness of Peter lies not in Peter, but in the One Peter confessed: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
I would like us to consider three aspects of this feast: Peter’s Confession and Christ’s Identity, Peter’s Ministry and Human Weakness, and Peter’s Legacy and the Eucharistic Church.
In the Gospel, we hear one of the most crucial moments in all the Gospels: Jesus asks, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” The disciples report the confusion of the crowd: “Some say John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.”
But then Jesus asks a more pointed, eternal question: “But whom say ye that I am?”
This is the question upon which the Church is built — not merely upon Peter’s person, but upon his answer:
“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Here we have the Christological heart of the Gospel — Jesus is not just another prophet, not merely a teacher, not one voice among many. Our pluralistic culture wrongly promotes Christianity as simply one religion among many that you may choose from, if it helps. Jesus, as merely one voice among the myriad other philosophers, teachers, or gurus. However, we do not retreat into the relativism of current popular thought. The Church is called, like Peter to discern and declare the voice and revelation of God. He is the Christ, the long-awaited Anointed One, The Way, the Truth, and the Life, He is the Narrow Gate: He is the Son of the Living God. We sing in the Gloria: “Thou only art the Lord; Thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most high…”
Saint Hilary of Poitiers, a 4th-century bishop, commented on this moment:
“Peter spoke, not by the understanding of flesh and blood, but by the revelation of the Father. This is the faith that overcomes the world, which sees in Jesus more than man, which perceives in Him the eternal Son.”
This revelation is not man’s invention. Jesus tells Peter, “Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”
Here, the Church stands before a mystery — not one we have devised, but one that has been revealed. And Peter, in receiving and declaring this truth, becomes a kind of firstfruits of the apostolic confession.
Jesus responds to Peter’s confession with His own declaration: “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” The name “Peter” — Petros — means “rock.” Just as we have been studying in Catechesis how to use the Fourfold Sense of Scripture, we note that it was a privilege for Peter to be named Rock; however, Scripture reveals that the Rock is Christ. The Apostolic Confession isn’t that the Church is built upon Peter,- the rock upon which Christ builds His Church is not Peter’s strength — it is the faith given to him, the confession he has made.
Saint Augustine put it this way:
“Upon this rock which thou hast confessed, I will build my Church; for the Rock is Christ Himself.”
(Tractate 124 on John)
What then of Peter’s role? He is indeed given the keys of the kingdom, symbolic of apostolic authority. He is called to be a steward, not the owner. He is entrusted with the binding and loosing of sins — that is, with the ministry of the Gospel and the discipline of the Church. But even Peter, the so-called “rock,” will stumble.
Just a few verses after today’s Gospel reading, Peter rebukes Jesus for speaking of His coming Passion, and Jesus turns and says to him: “Get thee behind me, Satan.”
And yet, notice that Christ does not abandon Peter.
We see that in the Epistle, from Acts 12. Peter has been arrested. Herod, seeing that the murder of James pleased the people, seizes Peter. Now, picture this, It is the night before his execution. And what is Peter doing? Sleeping. He’s bound with chains, surrounded by soldiers, and yet asleep — quite a strange echo of Gethsemane, isn’t it?
But the angel of the Lord comes and delivers him. “His chains fell off from his hands.” You see, the Church had been praying earnestly, and what happened? God answered! Reflect, if you will, - This moment is not just about Peter's physical escape — it is a picture of grace. Peter, once imprisoned by fear, once paralyzed by denial, is now free, Why?— because Christ has overcome. Not even prison walls or Roman soldiers can bind the apostle whom the Lord has commissioned.
Do you see how this gives hope to all of us? For we are not called because we are strong. We are called in our weakness. It reminds me of the song we used to sing in childhood. “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong. I am weak, but He is strong!” We come before Him, as we pray in Family Evening Prayer, “in a humble sense of our own unworthiness,” before He who is “ever ready to receive humble and penitent sinners.” Beloved, Christ builds His Church not with perfect stones, but with redeemed ones.
As St. John Chrysostom wrote:
“Peter, the unlearned fisherman, who denied the Lord, was made bold by grace to lead the Church and shepherd the flock — not by his merit, but by divine mercy.”
This is the God we serve — the God who calls, who restores, who uses even those who fall.
Now we come to the final dimension of this day: the Eucharistic legacy of Peter.
What does it mean to say the Church is built upon Peter’s confession? Well, it means, as the Collect says, that Christ has commanded Peter and the other apostles to feed the flock. This feeding is not merely moral guidance or doctrinal instruction. It is the ministry of Word and Sacrament.
“So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. 16 He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. 17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.”
In John 21, the Risen Lord restores Peter with three commands: “Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep.” This is the pastoral and Eucharistic vocation — to nourish the Church with the real presence of Christ.
When we gather at the altar, we stand on the ground laid by the apostles. The same Christ whom Peter confessed, the same Christ who restored him, the same Christ who delivered him — this Christ is now truly present to feed us.
In the Eucharist, we do not merely remember Christ — we partake of Him. As Peter himself would later write in his epistle:
“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” (1 Peter 2:2–3)
This tasting is not metaphor only — it is fulfilled sacramentally in the Supper.
Saint Ignatius of Antioch, a bishop of the early 2nd century and a hearer of the apostles, wrote of the Eucharist as:
“The medicine of immortality, the antidote against death, and the food that makes us live forever in Jesus Christ.”
This is the Eucharistic table — set not upon our merit, but upon the work of Christ. It is the place where the confession of Peter becomes the confession of the Church: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And so, beloved, as we come to the altar today, let us come not as spectators, not as those who admire Peter from afar, but as those who share in his confession. Christ is present. Christ is revealed. Christ is broken and given, that we might be made whole.
Let us hold fast to this Rock — not Peter himself, but the Christ whom Peter confessed. And let us give thanks that in the breaking of the bread, Christ is known to us still.
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
