A reading of the holy gospel according to Matthew. When Jesus came to the neighborhood of Caesarea, Philippi, he asked his disciples this question. Who do people say that the son of man is? They replied, some say John the baptizer. Others, Elijah.
Still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And you, Jesus said to them, who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered, you are the Messiah, the son of the living God. Jesus replied, blessed are you, Simon, son of John. No mere man has revealed this to you, but my heavenly father.
I, for my part, declare to you, you are rock, patriarch, Peter. And on this rock, I will build my church, and the jaws of death shall not prevail against it. I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you declare bound on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
And this is the gospel of the lord. The name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. Quite soon after the civil war, Mark Twain got himself on a tour of the Holy Land. It was probably the first one that left The United States.
A a group of, we would call them fundamentalists or evangelicals today, they chartered this steamship and for the grand tour. And out of that came, of course, Mark Twain's book about the voyage of the innocence. And it is generally considered a rather scurrilous account of the Holy Land. I don't think it is. But whatever you may think about it, if you've read it and if you haven't read it, you'll have to take my word for it.
This incident up in says Philippi of Caesarea Philippi, This narrative which we have just repeated, this Mark Twain treated with great respect, great respect. Because, you know, this is the heart of Christ's church. That Christ said to a man, thou art Peter, and upon this rock, this is a play upon the word patris, Peter, rock, I will build my church. Now I repeat, Christ didn't give us a book. He didn't give us a a stereotaped recording of his words.
What he did was to establish a a living institution upon a human being and the first one was Peter that he called rock. Now notice this rock, this Peter upon whom this church is Christ said I'm founding him. Notice how how firm that rock was. Almost, almost every incident that we have of Saint Peter's life, and we have a good we have a number, a good number. Peter comes up either as a vacillating, as a boisterous, as almost an arrogant person, a man who plunges in, who takes it upon himself to speak and to be the spokesman, and when the chips are down, he goes to sleep or he even denies that he even knew Jesus Christ.
Now that is quite a record, and that is the man Christ said, thou art rock. Thou art Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church. What a rock. And yet that's what Christ did. Now notice another word here.
The gates of hell will not prevail against the church. Notice it doesn't say that the gates of hell or whatever the the words in this translation are. It doesn't say that the church isn't gonna be attacked and persecuted and almost almost be destroyed. Its enemies have declared about about every generation that it's the end of the real hope of the Catholic church. The Catholic church has been dead and buried.
I don't know how many times, but it still is around. Still is around. Now, there's another thing I wanna bring up very briefly is this. This this idea of Peter and Paul going to Rome, suffering martyrdom in Rome, and being buried there. As you know, this is a highly controversial issue.
But keep this in mind. Keep this in mind. First of all, that is the tradition that has come down century after century after century. That's point number one. Now, when you attack a tradition, a a point of view, a position, a situation, an assertion, which has been generally accepted, which is that we would say the status quo, the burden of proof rests upon those who attack it.
That's his whole business about abortion and all of these other issues. The point is this, everything that humanly speaking could be done to disprove the the alleged the fact that Peter and Paul came to Rome has been done without a veil, without a veil. In all the excavation work that's been conducted in Rome under Saint Peter's Basilica, in all the traditions, in all the work that's been done on texts, there has not come up a single fact to disprove the assertion, the tradition, the persuasion, or the belief that Peter and Paul came to Rome and suffered martyrdom there. Not a single fact. On the other hand, everything which we do know for certain substantiates that tradition.
And furthermore, if you say that it wasn't true, when did that tradition start? Nobody can put their hand on that. Now you can still I've just been reading a book on Saint Augustine with by a very serious scholar by doctor Kelly. Now who's one of our separated brethren, but he's a very good scholar. And from time to time, he interjects this innuendo that we don't have any proof about Peter and Paul coming to Rome.
And they explain it in a way that The point is this, they do not in the least give you a bit of evidence to disprove this tradition. And there you have the tradition. If somebody says if I say, who's your father? You say, John Jones was my father. And if I come along and I say, I don't think John Jones is your father.
Who has to prove what? I have to prove a negative. And that's something to prove, believe me. So this is a very important point about Peter and Paul coming to Rome, believe me. I a very very important point.
And, yeah, it's as I say, it has been disputed and is disputed, but the point is it has not been disproved one I o d a bit, not a bit. Everything that we have turned up even in regard to the latest excavations which were done in our lifetime in Rome under Basilica have have corroborated the fact of Peter and Paul's coming to Rome and being buried there. So, today on this feast of saints Peter and Paul, they're the they they are the foundation of our church. Paul, the church. We church.
We church. Doubt about it. In the name of the father and of the son, holy spirit, amen.