The Gospel at Mass today reminds us that “Peter” is really what we call a “nickname”, which Our Lord gave to His Apostle Simon, brother of Andrew, on this very occasion. This took place once, when Jesus had asked the Apostles who men said He was. They told Him various names of persons the general population thought Jesus might be—but when Jesus asked them who they themselves thought He was, it was Peter who spoke up with great firmness before all the others, “You are the Christ (the “Anointed One”), the Son of the living God!”

    So it was that Jesus, answering Simon’s clear declaration, bestowed this new name upon Him: “Rock”, which is the meaning of the Aramaic word: “Kepha”, a name which we hear in its original form in St. Paul’s first Epistle to the Corinthians (1:12) and in the Epistle to the Galatians (1:18). Elsewhere, as here in the Gospel, the word is directly translated into the Greek in which the New Testament was written: “Petros” from which our more familiar “Peter” is obviously derived.

    Yet it is at first sight puzzling that Simon should have been so named. Was he not in reality one of the least constant of the Twelve? His walking on the water nearly resulted in his drowning, and his triple denial that he knew Jesus at the time of the Lord’s trial was hardly a sign of rock-like firmness.

    Of course, Simon Peter’s firmness was not total from Day 1, so to speak; it had to develop, and it did so, very painfully. Peter realised over and over again that he was not strong enough to stand up for his Saviour without his Saviour’s help. Yet despite his obvious want of courage on those notable occasions he never lost faith in Jesus. In fact it was his faith in Jesus that saved him from drowning, and which prevented him from following Judas into despair after his threefold denial.

    He was still with the others when, after the Resurrection, Our Lord would ask him three times: “Simon, do you love me?” It was after that threefold answer: “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you!” that Jesus finally promised Peter that he would indeed give the final act of witness by undergoing a brave death for his Master’s sake. It was this event that took place in Rome in 64 A.D, when Peter was crucified head-down in Nero’s Circus, a racetrack built on the side of the Vatican Hill, where he was subsequently buried and venerated by the early Christians. The Emperor Constantine built a great basilica over the site of this tomb in the early 4th century, where the present St. Peter’s stands today in Rome.

    We are now at the end of the “Year of St. Paul” that began last year in celebration of the bi-millennium of St. Paul’s birth. Saul, the Pharisee from Tarsus in Asia Minor, was a Greek-speaking Jew of the “diaspora”, the dispersion of many Jewish people throughout the Mediterranean world e.g. on account of trade. He was also a Roman citizen, a distinguished status inherited from his family, which was wealthy enough to acquire for him also the best possible Jewish education under Gamaliel, the most learned Rabbi of the day. (cf. Acts 22:3)

    His persecution of the earliest Christians is well-known on account of the dramatic contrast with his conversion. His change of name, however, was not the immediate consequence of his conversion. In fact, it was only after he had converted the Roman Proconsul of Cyprus, Sergius Paulus, (cf. Acts 13:7) that he seems to have adopted that very Roman name “Paulus” (Acts 13:9). It was not uncommon for Jews who travelled extensively throughout the pagan world to adopt Roman or Greek names, e.g. St Mark the evangelist was originally “John (Markos)”, and Joseph Barsabbas became known as “Justus”. We do not know the reason why Paul adopted this particular new name, but if, as it seems likely, it relates to his conversion of Sergius Paulus, then it may simply be that its closeness to “Saul” and its Latin meaning, “little”, may have been a motive for its choice: after all Paul does tell the Corinthians that he is “the least of all the Apostles, who am not worthy to be called an Apostle, on account of the fact that I persecuted the Church of God” (1 Cor 15:9). Let us give thanks to God today for the teaching given to the Church by this great Apostle of the Gentiles, and continue to study it and endeavour to live by it.