Gospel (Mt 16,13-19) - At that time, Jesus, having arrived in the region of Caesarea Philippi, asked his disciples: "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?". They replied: "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, others Jeremiah or some of the prophets." He said to them: "But who do you say that I am?". Simon Peter replied: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus said to him: «Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to you: you are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church and the powers of hell will not prevail over it. To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

Today we celebrate the feast of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, a feast that accompanies the history of the Church, in particular of the Christian community of Rome, where the two apostles testified to their faith in the last years of their lives until their martyrdom. Peter was called while he was mending the nets on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He was a simple fisherman, but he felt the desire for a new world. In fact, as soon as Jesus called him to a broader life and to fish for men and not fish, immediately, leaving the nets, he followed him. But the true Peter - the disciple to whom Jesus entrusts his flock - is the weak one who allows himself to be touched by the Spirit of God and, first of all, proclaims: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God", as we have read in the Gospel (Mt 16:16). The Lord made this weakness the "stone" of that spiritual building of which we are all part. Paul, as a young man, we find him next to those who are stoning Stephen; he guarded the cloaks of the stoners. He was zealous in fighting the young Christian community. He even got permission to persecute her. But on the road to Damascus the Lord made him fall to the ground from his security and his pride. And while he was in the dust, he raised his eyes to heaven and saw the Lord who said to him: "Why do you persecute me?". Saul felt his heart touch: tears did not flow from his eyes, but they remained closed. And he let himself be guided by the hand to Damascus where, after listening to the Gospel, he reopened his eyes and became a preacher of the Gospel that breaks down the walls of division: he is no longer Jew or Greek, neither slave nor free. On today's celebration the Church remembers them together as if to unite their precious testimony. Both, with their different riches, with their charisma, have marked the one Church of Christ. Today, when boundaries are once again forming in the hearts of many, separating one from the other, their testimony never ceases to preach that love without borders which alone can save our world. The strength of Peter's faith and the universality of Paul's faith are needed to show everyone the way of salvation.