Three Lessons from Two Apostles

It is difficult to find people more dissimilar to each other. Peter is married (the Gospel mentions his mother-in-law, and in the epistles there is a word about his companion wife), and Paul is a virgin.
Peter knew Christ from the early days of the Savior’s public ministry, and Paul only recognized Christ as the resurrected.
Further. Peter is a fisherman of Galilee, and Paul is a disciple of great scribes and is a Pharisee by upbringing. They are both Jews, but Paul preached the word of God mainly to the Gentiles, renewing them with the Spirit and making up the Church. Peter preached the Gospel mainly circumcised, that is, to fellow tribesmen.
Peter is the oldest among the closest disciples, but Paul bothered most of all, although he says: "Not I, but the grace of God." They died in different ways.

Paul, as a Roman citizen, cut off his head. Three times hitting the ground, Pavlova wiped out three sources from the earth. So it is still called the place of his death - "Three Fountains". And Peter was crucified upside down, having executed his wife before. “Wife, remember the Lord!” - Peter shouted to her and hung on the cross, pointing the Church to heaven with his feet, where all of us should go.

Such a distinction between the two apostles, commemorated and celebrated together, what does that tell us? The fact that the Church is all different. And the difference is a genuine blessing, if there is a unity of faith and a union of love. People should be different, dissimilar, irreducible to each other. If dictators do not have “irreplaceable people,” then God is all unique and all irreplaceable. The main thing is to have a common faith.
So Peter and Paul, having worked differently in different places of the universe, came together at the end of the road in Rome, where all roads led at that time. There they ended their work and their earthly journey martyred, confirming the truth of their sermon with a fearless death. Now they are truly together. Together - as the heirs of the kingdom of God and the crowns of the reward; together - as teachers of the Church, loved by all who love the Lord Jesus.
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One of the most important components of spiritual life is the change of name. A name is not a nickname, not a sound, but the very essence of a person, manifested verbally. Before Abraham became Abraham, he was Abram. First, having found and then having experienced it, God changes his name by adding one more letter, which is extremely significant, and only because of lack of space and time, we don’t speak in detail about this.
Similarly, Moses, dying on the border of the Land of Promise, transfers power and authority to his fellow Hosea. He must bring the people into the earth, but first Moses changes his name to - Jesus.
In the Apocalypse, among other promises, Christ says that he will give "to the one who overcomes the stone is white, and on the stone is his new name." That is, the saved will be renamed the Kingdom of God, just as Christians change their name during monastic tonsure.
Peter and Paul, who were celebrated, did not always carry these - well-known - names. Peter was Simon, and Paul was Saul. Christ renamed His disciples, foreseeing their future ministry and knowing their inner qualities. So the sons of Zebedee, James and John, became "sons of thunder." Simon, the son of Jonah, received the name "stone", that is, Peter. This stone is a good confession of Jesus as the Son of the Living God. On this confession, until the end of the age, the Church stands and will stand.
Pavel means “small” (from Latin “Paulus”). While preaching the gospel to the pagans, it was fitting for Paul to bear such a name so that the pagan's ear would not be offended by an unusual sound. The great Paul called himself small because he considered himself a “monster,” that is, a “miscarriage.” He considered himself a useless creature, as there was a time when he was persecuting the Church of God. Isn't that true, this is renaming meaningfully? What does it teach us?
It brings together two essential things - the strength of faith and personal humility. In the name of Peter - the hardness of the rock, on which any waves are broken. In the name of Paul - voluntary self-deprecation, healing from pride, threatening spiritual death to everyone.
Peter and Paul are not for nothing commemorated together. After all, not one thing is necessary for man, but both virtues. Firm faith without humility is fraught with collapse and destruction. Humility without faith is useless samoedism. Here we have another lesson from such a seemingly inconspicuous topic as the new apostolic names.
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We continue the conversation about Peter and Paul. Important dates have so-called pre-celebrations and after-feasts, that is, days of preparation for the celebration and days of enjoying the meaning of the past holiday. We also do this, speaking of the supreme apostles three times, as if before a holiday, on a holiday, and after it.
Whenever we take communion, we repeat the apostolic words. By the way! Do not forget that we can not take communion, without first remembering Judas the traitor and prudent robber! "Neither shall I kiss you, as Judas, but as a robber I confess to Thee: remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom." So we pray before the cup. Obviously, because every sinner before God is a robber, and the worst thing in faith is treason, betrayal. It is better not to know Christ than, having learned, to exchange Him for anything.
And in the same prayer there are the words of Peter and Paul. What is the most important thing from what Peter said? A confession uttered within Caesarea Filippova in response to the question: “Who do people think I am?”. “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” he replied then, according to the suggestion of the Father. We say these words before the communion: "I believe, Lord, and I confess, for you are truly Christ, the Son of the living God."
What did Paul say? Oh, a lot. But among many things, and this: "Christ came to the world to save sinners, of which the first is me." And these words we repeat before the cup.
After Peter's words: "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God," we add: - "He who came into the world of sinners to save, I am the first to be saved from them." Thus, when we commune, we pray with the words of Peter and the words of Paul, in which there is pure confession, on the one hand, and a humble awareness of our sins, on the other.
We said a little earlier that the very names of the apostles taught us the steadfastness of faith and repentance. Peter - Stone, Paul - voluntarily reduced. They said that a person should not just believe, but believe and humble himself. But not just to be humbled so as not to wither away from melancholy, namely, to be humble and to believe.
In particular, the union of faith and humility is required before the Cup. Here is the maximum tension of the internal forces and the clever attention of the heart! Here is a true communion with the power of the apostolic faith! Here is a significant relationship with Peter and Paul, with Andrew and Jacob, with Thomas and Matthew. What's wrong with them! Here is unity with the Word Incarnate Himself, which gives life and purifies from all sin.
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Here are three lessons from two apostles: 1)
unity of faith in living diversity, 2) a combination of solid faith and active humility, and 3) introduction to the apostolic spirit at the Holy Chalice. All this may be contained in us by the prayers of the former Galilean fisherman and former pupil of Gamaleilov.

Archpriest Andrei Tkachev