Sunday, 29 January (16 January Old Style)--The Feast of the Chains of St. Peter

The Chains of St. Peter

Today we celebrate the feast of the chains of St. Peter.  This is one of only a few feasts in the course of the liturgical year that commemorates an inanimate relic.  Two other very well known feasts are celebrated during the summer in commemoration of the great relic of Our Lady’s Robe (July 2) and Our Lady’s Belt (August 31). 

     The holy Apostle Peter wore chains more than once in his life.  One occasion is recorded for us in the Acts of the Holy Apostles, when Peter, after the martyrdom of St. James the Greater, the son of Zebedee, is arrested by King Herod Antipas.  He is languishing in prison, awaiting the same fate as James, when God miraculously delivers him.  On that occasion, he is sleeping between two soldiers. Nevertheless, the third watch of the night, an angel comes and miraculously makes the chains fall from around the Holy Apostles hands and feet. The same angel then guides him out to the street, making all the locked gates open as they pass. The rest of the Apostles and the young Church in Jerusalem did not entertain much hope for their leader, St. Peter, but they had called together a prayer vigil, in order to ask God to spare the Apostle’s life.  In this context, we have one of the most humorous stories of the Acts of the Holy Apostles.  St. Peter himself goes to the house where the vigil is being held for his welfare.  He knocks on the door for quite a while before the maid of the house, Rhoda, comes to the door.  She opens the door and sees Peter standing there.  She becomes so excited for sheer joy that she closes the door again, leaving Peter on the outside, while she goes to tell everybody in the house that he is alive and well.  Only then does she realize that she had left him outside.

     A second time that the Peter was placed in chains was many years later during the persecution of the Emperor Nero.  In the tumultuous months that followed Rome’s Great Fire, St. Peter considered it wise to leave the city, since the fire was being blamed on the Christians.  He determined to go south along the Appian Way, and to take refuge with the Christian community in Campania.  As he was leaving the city, passing through the necropolis that had grown up along that road, he met the Lord Jesus going the opposite direction, carrying His Cross.  Peter said to the Lord, “Lord, where are you going?” The Lord replied, “I am going to Rome to suffer with my people.”  Peter understood this as a sign that he should turn about and go back to the city.  Shortly thereafter he was arrested, and put in the Mamertine Prison.  The Mamertine was typical of a Roman jail. It consisted of one big open room in which the prisoners would be chained against the walls, often side by side.  Underneath this one open room was a smaller room, an execution chamber, which was accessible through a hole in the floor.  Normally, the condemned man would be thrown down through the hole into the death chamber, where the executioner would be waiting.  The condemned would then be strangled with a garrote. Ss. Peter and Paul were both prisoners in the Mamertine, but they were sentenced to executions outside the norm.  Paul was beheaded on account of his Roman citizenship, while Peter received the punishment of insurrectionists, slaves and traitors—he was crucified.  Both of them were freed from the chains of this life by their martyrs’ deaths, so that they could live in the freedom of the Kingdom of God.

Our own chains—the limitations and privations that we suffer

     Life in this world is about limitations and deprivations.  It is about chains.  All of us will suffer to some extent on account of the limitations imposed upon us by circumstances outside our control.  This suffering is a necessity of our natural state in this world.  But if we accept our chains, even embrace our chains, on account of our love for God, then these very chains become valuable and precious. They become the means of salvation for us—a way for us to share concretely in the sufferings of Christ.  “Rejoice in the measure that you share Christ’s sufferings.”

     The Holy Apostles, and particularly the Holy Apostle Peter, embraced their chains, because they could see very clearly the reward that awaited them.  If we take a look at our own lives, there is bound to be a long list of “chains” that we can embrace as well, because we love God, and because we long for the reward of everlasting life in His presence. 

The “Wisdom Cross”

     Accepting our limitations with love and gladness is an art that is not easily mastered. It requires a great deal of self-discipline, which can be effectively learned from the life of Christ.  A famous 17^th century saint was asked for a simple description of the way to be a true Christian and follow Christ.  In answer, he took down the cross from the wall of his cell, and wrote the following words on the back side of the cross: “Deny yourself. Carry your cross to follow Jesus Christ. If you are ashamed of the Cross of Jesus Christ, He will be ashamed of you in the presence of His Father. Love the cross. Desire: crosses, contempt, pain, abuse, insults, disgrace, persecution, humiliations, calumnies, illness, injuries. May Jesus prevail. May His Cross prevail (Divine love, humility, submission, patience, obedience: complete, prompt, joyful, blind and persevering.” Today, the cross in that cell is considered a relic, and is referred to as “The Wisdom Cross of Poitiers,” on account of the wisdom that its message teaches to those, who are seeking to the true kernel of Christianity.  But its message is hard, easily misunderstood, and potentially dangerous, especially the passage that says, “desire: crosses, contempt, pain, etc.” It is important to realize that it does not say that we should desire these things for themselves. No, we should desire them in order to further God’s designs both for us and for the world.  It is carrying God’s intentions forward toward their completion that gives us joy.  Plenty of things can give us happiness, amusement, excitement or stimulation.  But only God’s plan and its fulfillment can give us joy.  This is a thought which should give us extraordinary peace, surety and confidence; because it means that no matter how deep our material or moral suffering is, no matter what other people may think of us, or no matter what kind of privation we may have to endure, we can still have joy. Joy comes from the fulfillment of God’s loving plan. 

     In all the affairs of this world, there is a critical lack of certainty, as we have seen in the economic circumstances of the past few years.  However, one thing is certain for us: Joy.  Joy will always be there for us as long as we obediently and lovingly try to fulfill God’s will. It is an inescapable part of our fallen nature that we will sometimes feel “imprisoned” by the circumstances of our lives, but we will have joy in our chains if we love God and see His hand in all.