Domine, quo vadis?

In the Dominican Breviary, first Vespers of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul has the following Magnificat antiphon, which retells the famous legend of how, when St Peter thought to flee Rome at the Neronian Persecution, he met the Lord at the outskirts of the City, Who appeared carrying His Cross:.

As so often in confusion Peter had asked the Lord what He was doing during His earthly life, again he asked Him, Lord, whither goest Thou? and received the Divine reply, Peter, I go to be crucified again.   

At this implied rebuke, the Apostle turned and returned to Rome, there to endure death as a true witness for Christ, acting as should the disciple sent by so good a Master, taking up the Cross from Him, the Cross that he almost refused, but which the Lord as it were determined to carry for him.

Beatus Petrus Apostolus vidit sibi Christum occurrere, et adorans eum ait: Domine, quo vadis?  Venio Romam iterum crucifigi.

(Blessed Peter the Apostle beheld Christ to come to him, and worshipping Him said: Lord, whither goest Thou?  I go to Rome to be crucified again.)

This beautiful and significant incident, many times retold down the ages since its first appearance in the apocryphal Acts of Peter (late second century), tells us much about our Christian witness – if we cannot endure, the Lord strengthens us, since in true it is He Who bears our burdens and carries our afflictions.  The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of Christians only because it is Christ Who works in them, His members, Who suffers in them, that their mortal labours be of immortal merit for the building up of His Body, the Church.

There still exists a church built on the reputed site of this event.

Beginning of the Year of St Paul

After seeing the doctor yesterday evening, and getting some antibiotics, I feel rather better, and so have decided to brave the cold and rain of Perth mid-winter (a few showers, moderate wind, max. 18 C) for to go to Fr Rowe's 9 am Mass of the Vigil of SS Peter and Paul.

How kind of the Holy Father to decree 28th June 2008 to 29th June 2009 to be a Jubilee Year of St Paul the Apostle, that great Vessel of Election for the Conversion of the Gentiles!

I have decided to try and invoke this Apostle more (my first prayer upon awaking: St Paul, pray for us), to reread his writings and also the Acts of the Apostles, which so largely concern his missionary journeys - not to mention his marvellous conversion, the pattern for us all - and finally to take as guide Bl Columba Marmion, whose writings are redolent of the Christocentric spirituality of St Paul:

God chose us in Christ "before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight in charity. Who hath predestinated us unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ unto Himself, according to the purpose of His Will: unto the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He hath graced us in His beloved Son (Eph. i, 4-6)".
These are the terms in which the Divine plan is set forth by the Apostle St. Paul, who had been caught up to the third heaven, and was chosen by God to bring to light, as he himself says, the economy of the mystery which hath been hidden from all eternity in God. We see the great Apostle labouring unceasingly to make known this eternal plan, established by God Himself for the sanctification of our souls. ...all the efforts of the Apostle tend, as he carefully points out, to bring to light this Divine dispensation... (Mihi data est gratia hæc... illuminare omnes, quæ sit dispensatio sacramenti absconditi a sæculis in Deo. Ephes. iii, 8-9) (Bl Columba Marmion, Christ the Life of the Soul, p.3)