Ezra Jack Keats is an author of beautiful children’s stories. Last week my grandson and I read his story, Owl Moon. In this story a small boy and his father go out on a winter’s night when there is an “owl moon,” a full moon in a clear sky. They go hunting for a great horned owl—not so they can kill it, but so they can have the experience of “calling it in” through the snowy winter woods to encounter its beauty and magnificence.
We all have experiences like that—when we have a moment so special that we remember it forever. It imprints us with a beauty that soaks into our souls. Sometimes those memories change our lives. Sometimes they strengthen or guide us to stay on the paths we are on. Sometimes they are simply moments of exquisite wonder. But always, we remember. Always, when we remember, we receive a touch of grace.
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles. Priests will wear red at mass. Since the early years of the church, June 29th has been the day the church in Rome has celebrated the martyrdoms of these two saints.
Our scriptures today tell us of some “owl moon” experiences for Peter and Paul. They lead me to consider: How can we find owl moons so God can “call us in” during these dark, winter times?
Peter
It is a dark night for Peter in the first reading. The time is 43 AD. There is a new wave of persecution, and James, the Apostle, has been beheaded. It is the Feast of Unleavened Bread—the eight days after Passover when the Jews eat unleavened bread in memory of the Passover..
Peter is in prison, secured with double chains that connect him to two guards. It is the night before he is to appear before Herod—from all appearances the night before he will be sentenced to die. Surely Peter must have been remembering Passover thirteen years before when Christ was crucified.
Yet “prayer by the Church was fervently being made to God on his behalf.” And so an angel came into Peter’s cell, loosened the chains, and led him out of the prison and out of the city. Peter experienced it all as if it were a vision. It was not until he was entirely safe that he became fully aware of how God had called him and delivered him.
Paul
It is a dark night for Paul, too, as he writes to Timothy from prison. It is some time between 60 AD and 67 AD. Paul’s missionary journeys are done. These last seven years of his life Paul will spend in jail—praising God and writing epistles. Scholars are not sure exactly when during these years Paul wrote this letter to Timothy. It seems to have been written after his trial in Jerusalem, but before he was taken to Rome.
God had come to him, too, not with miraculous escapes, but with words and strength through the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel boldly in Jerusalem when he was arrested (Acts 22) and to confuse his accusers (Acts 23).
As he writes to Timothy, Paul seems to be at peace. “I, Paul, am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.”
Martyrdom in Rome
I did not know until I began to explore time frames for today’s readings that both Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome in 67 AD. One source said that June 29 may well have been the day one—or both—of them were killed.
The Gospel chosen for today is Peter’s confession of faith, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Peter and Paul were martyred for giving witness to that Truth.
Peter and Paul were not especially friends. Sometimes they saw things quite differently. Peter was the “head” of the apostles and church. Yet he mostly remained in Judea. God helped him to understand, through the conversion of Cornelius, that the Way of Jesus needed to expand into Christianity, a path of faith for all peoples. Then it was Paul who spear-headed much of that expansion. Each man had his job. Each man had his place.
Each man had his call and his personal path of conversion. It began for Peter when his brother Andrew said, “We have found the Messiah” one afternoon when the brothers, along with Jesus, were pulled to the Jordan and John’s baptism. Peter’s heart was committed almost immediately. Yes, he would be a fisher of men. He walked and talked and argued and learned from Jesus for three years. He made that “You are the Christ” pronouncement about six months before Jesus death. When he did, Jesus turned his focus from teaching disciples to dying on a cross. Yet, even so, Peter was not fully called, fully converted until Pentecost when he emerged on fire from the upper room.
Paul never intimated that conversion began for him until he met the risen Lord on the road to Damascus. In one way, it was immediate and complete. Paul never wavered, never turned back. He preached from the beginning. Yet Paul also had about three years with disciples near Damascus before he went to Jerusalem to meet Peter and the other apostles (Galatians 1:17-18) and then began his missionary journeys. He had a time of discipleship, too.
In 67 AD, martyrdom came for both Peter and Paul. Their conversions and their preaching were complete. They witnessed to the end—and so, from the earliest days of the church in Rome, June 29th honored their lives, their deaths, and their eternal life.
Owl Moons for Me and You
Now is a dark time in the world. It is a cold time. It is a harsh time. We need an owl moon. We need light in the night to give our souls breaths of grace, touches of goodness and peace. Considering Peter and Paul as men on paths of conversion, as well as paths of ministry, gives me at least a view out my window of an owl moon. It gives me light in the night.
I am worn from trouble all around me. To tell you the truth, I want to close up my house, pull my blinds, and sleep through this mess. But God is very clear with me, that I may not do that. He beckons me out to walk into the night, to walk in an owl moon.
Prayer
Saints Peter and Paul, fervently pray for me, for us. Help us to answer God’s calls in the night. Give us an owl moon and breaths of grace to lead and guide us.
