Address: Standing Firm in a Chaotic World

Note: The following is adapted from an address delivered at a Catholic congregation in Beijing on June 28, 2026, ahead of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.

Tomorrow we celebrate the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, two men who could hardly have been more different. Peter was a Galilean fisherman. Paul was a Pharisee, educated in the Law, and a Roman citizen. Yet Christ united them in a single mission, and through their witness the Gospel reached the heart of the Roman Empire itself.

To appreciate their lives, I think it is important to remember a few things.

First, unlike many of the figures of the distant ancient world, Peter and Paul are not merely names in sacred history. They were flesh-and-blood human beings who lived, preached, suffered, and died under the Roman Empire. Their writings survive. Their lives are recorded not only in Scripture but by early Christian tradition. According to that tradition, their tombs remain in Rome to this day beneath St. Peter’s Basilica and the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Peter was not simply one apostle among many. After Peter confessed Jesus to be the Christ, our Lord declared:

“You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven…” (Matthew 16:18–19)

From that moment onward, Peter became the visible leader of the apostolic Church. Alongside him stood Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, whose missionary journeys and inspired letters carried the Gospel throughout the Mediterranean world. Together, these two men became the pillars of the early Church, each fulfilling a distinct vocation within the one mission entrusted to them by Christ.

Second, before turning to Scripture, it is worth remembering the world into which Peter and Paul preached. Understanding their world helps us better understand the historical reality in which our faith emerged.

About two thousand years ago, the Roman Empire arose from the ashes of the Roman Republic. After generations of civil wars, political assassinations—including that of Julius Caesar—and repeated conspiracies against the state, the first emperor, Augustus, came to power promising peace, stability, and order.

But, even at the outset, many of Rome’s own writers sensed a profound moral crisis beneath that stability. The Roman historian Livy lamented Rome’s condition with one of antiquity’s most famous observations:

“We can endure neither our vices nor their remedies.”
— Ab Urbe Condita, Preface 9

Even religion itself had become disordered by the reign of Tiberius, Augustus’s successor. Tacitus writes:

“In the Greek cities, license and impunity in establishing sanctuaries were on the increase. Temples were thronged with the vilest of the slaves; the same refuge screened the debtor against his creditor, as well as men suspected of capital offences. No authority was strong enough to check the turbulence of a people which protected the crimes of men as much as the worship of the gods.”
— Annals III.60

This was the Mediterranean world through which Peter and Paul traveled—from Asia Minor to Macedonia, Athens, Corinth, and ultimately Rome. It was a civilization of extraordinary achievement, yet one wrestling with corruption, instability, injustice, and spiritual confusion.

This is the world into which Christ entered history.

God did not choose an age of peace or moral perfection. He entered a fractured world of empire, violence, and uncertainty. Through His Incarnation, death, and resurrection, He conquered sin and death, reconciled humanity to the Father, and through His apostles established His Church, revealing a new way of life founded upon truth, charity, mercy, and communion.

Let’s take a look at what this was like in practice. As we can see, in the Book of Acts, violence and coercion cannot extinguish truth. On top of this, the Christian answer to an age of fear was not terror, but communion and solidarity.

Following the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the apostles went into Jerusalem to preach, heal the sick, and proclaim the resurrection of Christ. As the Church grew, its members became known for their common life of prayer, generosity, and mutual care:

“Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul... and they had everything in common.” (Acts 4:32)

When Peter and John were ordered by the authorities to stop preaching and healing in the name of Jesus, they refused. Arrested once again with the other apostles, Peter answered with words that have echoed throughout Christian history:

“We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)

The persecution that followed produced one of history’s great reversals. Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee who had persecuted the Church and approved of the death of Stephen, encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. Blinded by the heavenly vision, he heard the Lord ask:

“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4)

The persecutor then became the Apostle to the Gentiles. The man who had once breathed ‘threats and murder’ against the disciples became one of Christianity’s greatest evangelists. Paul devoted the rest of his life to preaching Christ throughout the Mediterranean world.

More than any other missionary of the early Church, he carried the Gospel to the Greek cities of Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, Ephesus, and Athens, before ultimately bringing his witness to Rome itself. Through his missionary journeys and inspired letters, he became one of the principal architects of the Church’s expansion among the Gentiles and one of the most influential figures in the history of Christianity.

Our Lord led Paul to Rome while facing persecution in Jerusalem. As the Book of Acts makes clear, after hearing his defense, King Agrippa concluded that Paul could have been released had he not appealed to Caesar (Acts 26:32). Through God’s providence, Paul was carried to Rome itself, so that the Good News would be proclaimed at the very heart of the empire.

The Book of Acts concludes not with the triumph of Caesar, but with Paul under house arrest in Rome—the capital of the empire that had crucified Christ—

“...proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.” (Acts 28:31)

It was later, under the Emperor Nero, that both Peter and Paul sealed their witness with martyrdom. Following the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64, Nero blamed the Christians, inaugurating the empire’s first major persecution of the Church. According to the earliest Christian tradition, Paul was beheaded outside the city. Peter, condemned to crucifixion, requested that he be crucified upside down, believing himself unworthy to die in the same manner as our Lord.

What is perhaps most remarkable, however, is that when Peter and Paul themselves write to the churches, they do not dwell upon Rome’s power. They do not call for vengeance or show resentment toward their persecutors. Instead, they return again and again to the virtues that reveal our participation in Christ.

Peter writes:

“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8)

“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” (1 Peter 3:8)

Paul writes with the same conviction:

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” (Romans 12:9–10)

And in perhaps his most famous words:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way... Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13:4–8)

Finally, writing near the end of his life, alone, and awaiting execution in Rome itself, Paul offers peace:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7)

May the witness of Saints Peter and Paul remind us that every age has its fears, its ambitions, and its idols. But every age is also offered the same invitation: to seek first the Kingdom of God, to bear faithful witness to the truth, and to entrust ourselves to Christ, who alone is Lord.