I love old movies.  Maybe it’s because when they made movies forty, fifty, even sixty years ago, they had to have a story.  They didn’t have special effects and computer-generated scenes and characters.  Sometimes when you watch a new movie, you get the idea that they made it just to show case the latest in visual technology, and NOT to tell a good story.  My favorite old movies are the Dean Martin / Jerry Lewis comedies from the 1950’s.   From 1946 to 1956, Martin and Lewis were the most famous comedians in the country.  They made everybody laugh from New York and Las Vegas, to movies and radio, to television and they even had their own comic books.  When you watch a Dean Martin / Jerry Lewis movie, you can just tell that they were having fun making it.  Steve Carrell, Jim Carey, Robin Williams and Larry the Cable Guy can all make us laugh today.  But Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were in a class all by themselves, fifty years ago.  They made it look so fun and so easy.   In 1956, the comedy duo broke up, and we found out that it wasn’t always so much fun up there.  Pride and selfishness, who was getting what, and who was most important, eventually caused the break-up of a truly great comedy team.  People were surprised when the laughter stopped.  The relationship between the two comedians was not what everybody thought.

      We come together on this Sunday, and we take another break from Ordinary Time, as we celebrate the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.  Today, we recall the two, great heavyweights of the Early Church, who laid the foundation for every thing that we know and love today in the Catholic Church.  Peter and Paul are perhaps are two greatest heroes.  Last Sunday, I stood in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, and there on one side was a giant statue of St. Peter holding a set of keys, the keys to the Kingdom that Jesus gives him in the Gospel today.  And there on the other side of the steps is the massive statue of St. Paul, holding a sword, representing the Word of God, that he was an instrument in helping to write.  And standing between those two statues is just awe-inspiring!  And you know, just like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, we, all these centuries later, like to romanticize these two saints.  It would have been awesome if Peter and Paul were best friends and ate S’mores together on camping trips.  It would have made us feel better about these two to know that they liked to pray together, or that sang praise songs together in prison, or that they like to hold hands together during the “Our Father”.   Or maybe we’d like to find just one statue in the city of Rome where Peter and Paul are depicted together, with their arm around each other, or holding up a glass of beer together, or even just standing together looking cordial to one another.  But you won’t find anything like that in Rome or anywhere else.  These two saints were very different from each other and they didn’t always get along.  Peter was stubborn and headstrong, and he had to be cautious with the new Church that Jesus had put him in charge of.  Paul was cutting edge, he was very forward, very pushy, and he was very used to getting his way.  You can see the clash of these two spiritual giants coming from a mile away!  They didn’t always get along.  They argued.  They debated.  They fought.  They got mad at each other.  But St. Peter and St. Paul NEVER forgot that they were on the SAME team, in the same Church.  The unity of the Church was most important to both of them.  It was certainly much bigger than their personal feelings about each other.  Peter did listen to Paul and eventually, almost always came around to what St. Paul was thinking.  And St. Paul did respect St. Peter’s authority.  Peter was the first pope and St. Paul was not.  Paul couldn’t be mad at St. Peter for that.  Jesus Himself was the One Who chose him.  Paul respected St. Peter a lot more than what St. Peter thought.  And together they set up Jesus’ Church that still goes on today.  They both died in Rome for what they believed in.  Some sources tell us that they were even martyred on the exact same day.   And so these two saints that didn’t always see ‘eye to eye’ share this Feast Day together.

        St. Peter and St. Paul have a lot to teach all of us in the Church today.  We don’t all have to be best friends.  We are not always going to agree on everything.  We can argue, and debate, and challenge each other out of love and concern.  But we can never forget that ultimately, we are all on the same team, and we’re all working for the same Jesus Christ.   The Church is what is most important.  There’s something bigger going on here than just us as individuals, or even as small groups.  The Kingdom of God is being built up in the Church.  Like St. Peter and St. Paul, we must do our part to keep that going.

        Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis look good in those old movies having a great time.  It just wasn’t always real or what it seemed.  St. Peter was a fisherman from Galilee and St. Paul was a tentmaker from Tarsus, both of whom God chose to do incredible things through, to build up His Church.  They were real people just like us.  They didn’t always get along.  But they learned how to work together.  And so must we.

May God bless us this Sunday,  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti…Pray for us !!!