Jesus did not give his disciples detailed instructions about every aspect of life in the Church, so that from the beginning, the Church itself has had to make decisions about organization, structures, requirements for acceptance into the community and so on. Thus in the beginning the Church went through a painful process to decide whether Gentiles needed to follow all the precepts of the Old Testament in order to enter Jesus' new Community. By the grace of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Church decided that salvation comes through Jesus and not through the Law of Moses.

In celebrating the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, we celebrate their sanctity and work as Apostles but may consider that symbolically we also celebrate the decision of the Church that the call to faith in Jesus is a totally and radically new grace, available to all who hear the Gospel and are willing to surrender to the Holy Spirit's guidance. The Church must always be attentive to the voice of the Spirit and, as followers of Jesus, we must pray for the Spirit's enlightenment.