Fr. Frans van der Lugt was a Dutch Jesuit priest who had been living and working in Syria since 1966. He was known as “Abouna Frans,” our Father Frans. He was beloved by both Christians and Muslims in the old city of Homs. Two weeks before Easter, just days before his 76th birthday, an unknown assailant shot him twice after beating him.
Fr. Frans was the last Westerner in Homs, a city bitterly contested by both sides in Syria’s ongoing bloody civil war.Last January, a truce among the warring factions allowed for1500 people to be evacuated, but Fr. Frans refused to leave since he was operating a clinic, which provided health care and education for disabled children. His clinic also assisted many Syrian families displaced by the war.
A few days before his death, Fr. Frans wrote to friends on Facebook, “We are preparing for Easter, reflecting on the crossing from death to resurrection. We feel like we are in the valley of the shadows, but we can see that light far away, leading us to life again…we hope that Syria experiences resurrection soon…and let’s move forward.”
A Syrian friend said of Fr. Frans, “He changed the lives of thousands of people…he taught us the meaning of love not just with words, but with life.” Such is the call of Jesus Christ to all of us, beginning with Peter and Paul, whose feast we celebrate today, and the first generation of Christians, some of whom even lived in Syria back then, and continuing to Fr. Frans and us in our own time and place.
Within the recent past, the Church has been tossed to and fro in storms of controversy in many countries besides Syria. It has been the target of fierce persecution, and being staffed by human beings, it has also allowed evil to corrupt it from within. Unfortunately, in circumstances of harassment or scandal, the lives of many have been diminished, their confidence undermined and their faith tested.
Without minimizing the suffering of the present, we should remember that such trials are not new to the Church. From the very beginning, the Church faced opposition, and despite its many trials, has survived and even flourished due to the fact that Jesus Christ is its foundation. He has always been there, like the good shepherd, watching over us, his sheep. The Church may have been built on Peter, the former denier, and spread by Paul, the former persecutor, but it is the church of Jesus Christ, and it will endure to the end of time because he promised us that it would.
Today we marvel at the transformation of these once weak human leaders. Peter’s newfound profound commitment to his Lord and to the fledgling church resulted in his imprisonment. Paul too was imprisoned on more than one occasion. He did not see this as a failure, but as a consequence of his commitment to the Gospel.
Peter’s journey was one from the weakness of denial to the rock of fidelity. He gave us the ultimate witness of the cross. Paul’s pilgrimage was from the blindness of persecution to the fire of proclamation. He made the Word of God come alive to the nations. Their passion and commitment was to create a place for everyone in Christ’s church. Their loyalty to Jesus Christ was valid to death. Peter and Paul are pillars of our Church who truly changed the course of history.
As ordinary men, Peter and Paul might have avoided each other. Peter was a fisherman from Galilee and Paul a Greek educated intellectual. But Jesus brought them together as a sign for his Church in which the entire spectrum of humanity would find a new place to call home. Together they worked to build the church. Together they witnessed to Christ. According to ancient tradition, on the morning of June 29, they suffered the death of their Lord; Peter was crucified upside down and Paul was beheaded. They had a unity that transcended all differences. By example, they teach us about the depth of Christian commitment.
At the close of The Year of St. Paul on June 29, 2009, Pope Benedict invited each Catholic to hold a mirror to his or her life and ask, “Am I as determined and as energetic about spreading the Catholic faith as St. Paul was?” “Is spreading the faith both by example and by my conversations with friends, colleagues and acquaintances even a concern for me?” “What do I perceive to be my responsibilities following upon my own declaration of faith in Jesus?”
In baptism, we become, like Peter and Paul, “One who is sent forth” to proclaim the risen Christ’s gospel of compassion, generosity, reconciliation and peace. This is why I so often say at the end of Mass, “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.” In whatever peace we can extend, in whatever brokenness we can mend, in whatever bread we can offer, may we continue the work begun by our ancestors in faith, Peter and Paul, bringing about the kingdom of God here and now by what we say and do.
Soon we will say, in the creed, “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.” When we say this, we are affirming that this worldwide family to which we belong, this Catholic Church, with all its human shortcomings, is made and willed by God. This subtle blend of the static and the dynamic, the institutional and the missionary, is the way it’s meant to be. Peter needs Paul and Paul needs Peter. It is the same Holy Spirit at work in both of them and in us.