Peter, Moses, and Our Freedom

The nave and apse of the Basilica of Saint Peter in Chains

A quick update on the station church experience, which I wrote about last time. This morning I had the privilege to serve as the lector at the morning Mass at the Basilica of Saint Peter in Chains, located near the Colosseum on the Oppian Hill, the southern part of the Esquiline Hill (one of Rome's famous Seven Hills). I had decided to select this church because my patron, St. Andrew, was of course the brother of St. Peter and the one who introduced him to Jesus, and thus I felt it a fitting place to exercise my liturgical ministry. Some students have suggested, and I've considered, perhaps serving at the same church every year that I progress through formation, as an acolyte, then a deacon, and ultimately a priest.

The miraculous chains, with the reliquaries of the Maccabee brothers on either side

The first church on this site was probably built in the fifth century by Pope Sixtus III and reportedly enshrined the chains which were used to hold St. Peter prisoner while he was awaiting execution in Rome. Tradition says that the chains which were used in St. Peter's imprisonment in Jerusalem, of which he was miraculously freed (Acts 12:6-11), were given to Pope Leo the Great by Empress Licinia Eudoxia around the year 450. When the pope compared the two sets of chains, they reportedly fused together miraculously and the chains today remain enshrined below the altar of the basilica. Also below the altar, next to the chains, are the relics of the Maccabeean brothers, who though they lived in Old Testament times nonetheless suffered martyrdom rather than denounce their faith and thus are recognized as saints. Their martyrdom is described in the seventh chapter of 2 Maccabees. The basilica is perhaps most famous nowadays for the unfinished (and, as it turns out, unused) tomb of Pope Julius II (he was eventually buried in St. Peter's Basilica), which includes Michelangelo's famous sculpture Moses. The tomb itself is huge, dominating an entire side of the transept, and the central statue just as imposing.

Michelangelo's Moses

Despite its relatively plain outward appeareance, the basilica stands today as something of a symbol of religious freedom. The testimony made by St. Peter and the Maccabee brothers remind us of what we owe to those who gave their lives in service to the Faith which now has been passed on to us. Even the statue of Moses recalls the Exodus event, part of our spiritual heritage, in which God led Israel out of captivity, a feat he achieved for all times and all peoples in Jesus Christ. The powerful witness of these figures, our forefathers, can inspire us today. Their suffering of such trials, even to the point of martyrdom, was not in vain but rather was done in the name of freedom and for the aim of preserving belief in the Truth, even in the face of all adversity. Perhaps their example can help us in our day not to despair that our efforts to stand up for good are for naught, even if they seem to be, but rather to hope and to trust in the victory, though yet unseen, which has already been won for us. In God's time, as St. Paul tells us, "All things work together unto good for those who love God" (Rom 8:28).