How does one know where to stand? As a Christian, how do you know? What church or denomination should you join, what teaching should you follow, what discipline should you embrace? How does one discern right belief, that is, orthodoxy? Of all that’s out there, of all that’s called Christian, from the good to the grotesque, how does one choose the right path?
These are real questions. Considering all the many churches, the many variations on theological matters, the innumerable churches and denominations, each teaching this and that, each confession slightly different from the next, you likely understand the genuine religious confusion I’m trying to describe.
Especially if you’re a convert, or if you’ve ever been a spiritual seeker of any kind, you know what I mean. If you’ve ever shopped for a church, ever wondered where to go; maybe at the beginning of your faith, you didn’t have the faintest idea where to look, where to find authentic truth. Where does one find the true faith, the true Gospel of Jesus Christ? It’s not always easy. It can be very confusing.
Believe it or not, though, these are ancient questions. In the late second century, St. Irenaeus of Lyons asked quite similar questions. He was wondering how to navigate the confused and spliced-together teachings of various sects we today call Gnostics — Valentinians, the followers of Basilides, and so on. Their teachings, although at times complex, elegant and impressive, were nonetheless finally incoherent. Trying to make sense of them was like trying to “braid ropes of sand,” Irenaeus said; at the end, none of it made sense (“Against Heresies” 1.8.1). What, then, should a believer do? How does one know where to stand?
Where should believers stand?
St. Irenaeus’ answer was simple: Stand with the apostles. Irenaeus is the early Church’s great champion of what we today call “apostolic succession.” It is, of course, a biblical idea; he didn’t invent it. One can trace the notion of apostolic succession back to Paul’s missionary journeys, for instance. Also, St. Clement of Rome talks about it a century before Irenaeus, how the apostles “appointed their first converts — after testing them by the Spirit — to be bishops and deacons for the believers of the future.” Rather, St. Irenaeus, perhaps more than anyone else in early Christianity, illustrated just how critical it was that one’s faith remain apostolic, that remaining in communion with truly apostolic churches mattered to the purity and practice of the Christian faith.
Irenaeus said that we know those churches that were established by the apostles, that we can even count their successors; stick with those churches that can do that, those genuinely apostolic churches, he said.
But then he said something even more interesting. Irenaeus talked about the Church of Rome, “the Church that is the greatest, most ancient, and known to all, founded and set up by the two most glorious apostles Peter and Paul.” We should really stick with that Church, Irenaeus argued. “For it is necessary for every church — that is, the believers from everywhere — to agree with this Church, in which the tradition from the apostles has always been preserved by those who are from everywhere, because of its more excellent origins” (“Against Heresies” 3.3.2).
| June 29, 2025 – Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles |
|---|
| Acts 12:1-11 Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9 2 Tm 4:6-8, 17-18 Mt 16:13-19 |
Irenaeus is saying here that believers should stick with the Church of Rome, that in the confusion of all the various and competing sects and teachings, half-true and false, the path one should follow is the path leading to the Church built upon the tombs of the two great apostles, Peter and Paul. That’s where believers should stand, Irenaeus said.
Acting as a ‘Church united’
That’s what we celebrate on this Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, this great feast of our Catholic and Apostolic Church. We celebrate that fundamental, biblical truth that to be faithful is to keep both the “apostles’ teaching and fellowship” (Acts 2:42).
We celebrate that promise made to Peter by Christ himself, that Peter would be the rock upon which the Church is built, and that hell would not overcome it (Mt 16:18). We celebrate the faith Pope Leo XIV expressed the moment he stepped out on the loggia for the first time, literally standing above the tomb of St. Peter himself, his faith and gratitude that as the chosen “Successor of Peter” he promises to “walk together” with us “as a Church united.”
How does one know where to stand? As a Christian, how do you know? For we Catholics, the answer has always been apostolic, Petrine and Roman too. And hell has yet to overcome it.
