Although all the blessed apostles are the recipients of an equal share of grace from the Lord of holiness, nonetheless in some way Peter and Paul seem to stand out from the others and to excel by reason of certain special virtue of faith in the Savior.
Indeed we are able to prove this by referring to the judgement of the Lord himself. For to Peter, as to a good steward, he gave the key of the heavenly kingdom, and upon Paul, as one skilled in instruction, he enjoined the teaching office in the school of the Church.
Thus, those whom the one would educate to salvation, the other would receive into peace, and while Paul would enlighten their hearts with the teaching of his words Peter would open to their souls to the kingdom of heaven. Hence Paul also received, so to speak, a key from Christ, that of knowledge.
For whatever opens up the hard places of hearts to faith, lays bare the secrets of minds, and brings what is kept closed within out into the open by an intelligible presentation, ought to be call a key. A key, I say, both opens the conscience to the confession of sin and inserts grace for the eternal saving mystery. Each, then received a key from the Lord: the one of knowledge, and the other of power. The one dispense the riches of immortality, and other distributes the treasure of knowledge. For there are in fact treasures of knowledge, as it is written: 𝑖𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑜𝑚 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑑𝑜𝑚 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑙𝑒𝑑𝑔𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑑𝑒𝑛 (𝐶𝑜𝑙2:3).
Consequently blessed Peter and Paul stand out among all the apostles and excel by a certain special prerogative…But where did they suffer martyrdom? In the city of Rome, which holds the leadership and the chief place among the nations, so that where the head of holiness might rest, and where the prices of the peoples used to live, there the princes of the churches might remain.
From this we are able to grasp how meritorious blessed Peter and Paul are: as the Lord illumined the region of the East with his own suffering, so he deigned to illumine the region of the West by the blood of the apostles who were acting in his place. And although his suffering is sufficient for salvation, nonetheless he has offered us these martyrs as an example.
-Saint Maximus of Turin
#DioceseofPalmBeach #catholicsaints
