Between 1940 and 1949, Pope St. Pius XII authorized crews to undertake excavations underneath St. Peter’s basilica. Renovation work on the lower level of the basilica had uncovered the remains of an ancient Roman necropolis on which the original basilica was made during the time of Constantine. Tradition held that this was the site where St. Peter himself had been buried after being crucified upside down in the nearby Roman Circus Maximus. The ruins underneath the basilica had lain buried for centuries at this point, so nobody knew exactly what they would find when they began digging. What the crews uncovered during those years of excavation was indeed a first century Roman necropolis, a section of the ancient city of Rome set aside for various different types of burial sites.
After further permission was given by the pope in 1950, excavators dug below the main altar in St. Peters and came across what they believed to be the grave of St. Peter himself, traditionally called the Poor Man’s Grave. This would have been the place where Christians, at great danger to themselves, buried the body of St. Peter after his crucifixion. Over the centuries, tradition said that they had built a structure around the grave to protect it. So when the excavators found this enclosed grave at the exact place where tradition said it would be, this was cause for great interest…until they tested the bones in the grave. They turned out to belong to several different individuals and some animals. One of the skeletons was about the right age and time period for St. Peter, but it was a female. They were deflated to learn that the first pope’s bones apparently weren’t in the location that Christians had claimed they were for over a thousand years.
However, about fifteen years later, a researcher was studying one of the walls next to the Poor Man’s Grave and came to a startling discovery. This wall was known as the Graffiti Wall, as it was covered in a ton of ancient writing and symbols. As the researcher studied the inscriptions on the wall, he noticed one in particular that said, “Peter is within.” He also saw many different markings on this wall which resembled keys, an ancient symbol of St. Peter’s authority in the church. Jesus had told Peter that He would give him the “keys to the kingdom of heaven.” This was a fascinating discovery seeming to point to the fact that this was, in fact, Peter’s grave. But what about the bones? As they examined this graffiti wall, they noticed that there was a niche built into the wall. Looking back into the records of the excavation, they were surprised to find that workers had removed bones from this niche over a decade before and had put them into storage.
They found the box containing those bones and testing revealed them to be from a robust man of about 60-70 years old from the first century. This would have been the right age and time period for St. Peter. Additionally, the skeleton was missing foot bones. Historians attributed this to the fact that the disciples who took Peter down from the cross after he was crucified may have had to leave his feet if they were working quickly. Other testing with relics of Peter’s skull bones in another church in Rome revealed that they matched. These and many other clues helped them to know they had found St. Peter’s bones! After this discovery, the bones were solemnly transferred back into that little niche. If you go to Rome today and are able to score tickets to the ‘scavi’ tour, you can go down under St. Peter’s basilica and see the excavated Necropolis and pray at the graffiti wall with St. Peter’s bones. I was blessed to do it as a seminarian.
The generally accepted theory is that, during a time of persecution of Christians in Rome around the year 150, St. Peter’s bones were hidden inside a niche in the wall by his tomb to protect them from desecration. And there they sat, for over a thousand years, with pilgrims constantly visiting the site and leaving graffiti paying respect to him on the wall bearing his remains.
How many times have you seen graffiti messages on a wall, table or sign and just completely disregarded them? This seemingly insignificant little message became extremely important when they realized that it was connected to St. Peter himself. That message was so powerful! ‘Peter is within.’ Because of those three words, they were able to find the remains of the first pope which had been hiding in plain sight in a box on a shelf for over a decade!
Today Jesus speaks to us about the enormous potential of the Word of God to work in our own lives. He tells us the parable about the seeds which get scattered on various different types of ground: the path, rocky ground, thorny ground, and rich soil. In each of these cases, we are looking at an image of the Word of God encountering our hearts. There are probably times all of us can think of when we had the opportunity to listen to God speaking to us, but our cares and anxieties got in the way. Our hearts were that thorny ground. Other times maybe we can remember a point where we were really inspired–maybe at a retreat or after a good homily–but then found ourselves sliding back into our old ways fairly quickly. In those moments, we allowed the rockiness of our sins and bad habits to choke the growth that God wanted to give us through His Word. I can think of times where my own heart has been like the path, just totally closed off to the power of God’s Word for me.
The great news is that God is persistent with us. It is too easy for us to write ourselves off as people who could never bear great fruit for the kingdom. We say to ourselves: “How could God ever work powerfully through me? I’m not smart enough, not good-looking enough, not well-spoken enough, etc.”
But the good news is, to bear fruit, all God needs is for us to surrender to Him and let Him work. God knows that He can do great things in and through you! The soil that bears rich fruit has already been prepared to receive the seed! God is already at work in you right now. Do you believe that? The Lord of the Universe has prepared you to be in this church, at this moment, to receive His Word today–both in Scripture, and for those disposed to receive Him, in the Eucharist! I think too often we discount the fact that God wants to prepare our hearts through His Word.
The Word that we encounter isn’t just any word, it is God’s Word! The Word through whom everything was created, the Word that became Flesh in Mary’s womb and walked among us. As St. Paul reminds us, God’s word is “living and effective.” So when we encounter the Word, that Seed is more than just an inanimate thing that God is trying to plant in our hearts, it is a Person who wants to reorder our hearts so that they can be prepared to receive Him fully. As the Catechism puts it: “Through all the words of Sacred Scripture, God speaks only one single Word, his one Utterance in whom he expresses himself completely.” When we listen to the words of Scripture, both in Mass and in our own prayer, with God’s help we can allow them to draw us closer to Jesus, THE Word. The Words of Scripture draw us to Jesus, and through Him to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Think back to the story of those words scribbled on the wall of Peter’s tomb. They were powerful because they drew the scientists to the bones of St. Peter. This is an image of the power of the Word of God for us. In the Scriptures, we are drawn through them to God, the One who has made us for Himself and speaks to us through our own language! Again, the Catechism puts it so beautifully: “In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them.” So we don’t have just any words in Scripture, but the Word who speaks to us in those words and can draw us into a deeper relationship with Him through them.
Each of us has all that we need to bear one hundred, or sixty, or thirtyfold fruit. Let us ask our loving Father today to open our hearts to His incredible power in the Eucharist and in His Word of Scripture so that He can work through us. This is how we bear such great fruit: by letting the Word dwell in us so much that His desires become ours, His habits become ours, His actions become ours; so that, with St. Paul we can start to recognize that it isn’t us, but Christ living in us, making us who we were made to be in Him and reaching others through us!
+ Father, we thank you so much for your Word in Scripture; prepare our hearts to receive you through it. Jesus, we thank you for coming to meet us through the Scriptures. Help our hearts to be open to your transforming power. Holy Spirit, help us to turn away from whatever is keeping us today from bearing the fruit we are made to bear in God. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. +