Our Saint of the Day commemorates two churches in Rome. ⛪
November 18, 2024
Dear John,
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With profound gratitude,
Deacon Matthew Halbach, PhD President & Publisher,
St. Peter’s is probably the most famous church in Christendom. Massive in scale and a veritable museum of art and architecture, it began on a much humbler scale. Vatican Hill was a simple cemetery where believers gathered at Saint Peter’s tomb to pray. In 319, Constantine built a basilica on the site that stood for more than a thousand years until, despite numerous restorations, it threatened to collapse. In 1506, Pope Julius II ordered it razed and reconstructed, but the new basilica was not completed and dedicated for more than two centuries.
St. Paul’s Outside-the-Walls stands near the Abaazia delle Tre Fontane, where Saint Paul is believed to have been beheaded. The largest church in Rome until St. Peter’s was rebuilt, the basilica also rises over the traditional site of its namesake’s grave. The most recent edifice was constructed after a fire in 1823. The first basilica was also Constantine’s doing.
Constantine’s building projects enticed the first of a centuries-long parade of pilgrims to Rome. From the time the basilicas were first built until the empire crumbled under “barbarian” invasions, the two churches, although miles apart, were linked by a roofed colonnade of marble columns.
Reflection
Peter, the rough fisherman whom Jesus named the rock on which the Church is built, and the educated Paul, reformed persecutor of Christians, Roman citizen, and missionary to the gentiles, are the original odd couple. The major similarity in their faith journeys is the journey’s end: both, according to tradition, died a martyr’s death in Rome—Peter on a cross and Paul beneath the sword. Their combined gifts shaped the early Church and believers have prayed at their tombs from the earliest days.
I don’t think there is much difference between life and death. The difference is as a leaf suspended in a flowing stream. The stream has movement and force, power. The leaf, as it is carried along in the stream, like the palm of your hand, can be palm down or palm up—same leaf, same hand; only, at one moment in time the leaf has one side up and one side down. There is no difference in the up or down. The moment of turning, which we call death or birth, from one to the other is the difference, and it is only a second in time—a moment of dynamic transition—not a static state at all.
And we flow in this stream of life that is the energy of God.
In Matthew’s Gospel, when the Pharisees challenge Jesus for letting his followers pluck grains of wheat on the Sabbath, they are reminding him that the Sabbath is holy and that the law requires it be set aside as a time when no work is done, even the simplest of labors. That was one of the primary laws Moses handed on to them. In their eyes, following the law is the ultimate sacrifice God requires. And yet Jesus reminds them that God does not desire our grain offerings, our incense, not even our weekly tithes; the sacrifice God desires isn’t legalistic or ritualistic. It’s mercy.
Pray
Lord, I offer you today my heart, my hands, my lips, and my eyes. I lay them all down before you and ask only that you fill me with your love and lead me by your light, and let me become an instrument of your mercy this day. Amen.
Act
Think of someone who is in need of mercy, perhaps someone who has hurt your feelings or caused you pain. Maybe it is even someone you have hurt. Seek them out in person, by phone, or in writing and offer them a word of comfort. Let your sacrifice of time and energy become a source of God’s mercy.
Today's Pause+Pray was written by Herman Sutter. Learn more here!
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