By Father Rich Tomkosky
It was a very rare occurrence for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul to fall on a Sunday, which it did this past weekend. It was a great spiritual opportunity to reflect upon how the Lord transformed two unique individuals — who, before their mature spiritual awakening/conversion, were in all honesty sinful and difficult in different ways — into mature spiritual pillars of the early Church and reflections of the Lord’s splendid goodness in beautiful but distinct ways.
This is something always to remember: each of us is called to be a different type of unique saint in God’s love and truth, not a carbon copy of anyone as we are all uniquely loved and gifted by God with different backgrounds, gifts and talents, strengths and weaknesses, and innate temperaments and variously developed personalities and characters.
Saint Peter was a man who loved Jesus greatly as is seen in the Gospel, but in an impetuous and overly emotivist way. He is a classic example of the innate Sanguine temperament with which some people are born. These are the people who are often charismatic, popular, fun, sunny in outlook and nature, but also impetuous, unreflective on the deeper meaning of things, sometimes superficial and silly, who have a hard time dealing with suffering and negative things. But in Jesus, maturation can happen just like with the other three innate temperaments of humans and the combination of them.
Jesus changed his name from Simon to Peter, the rock, to signify the potential Jesus saw in Simon, but it would take a long time to transform him. Fortunately, the Lord is very patient!
So, you see Peter early on reprimanding Jesus for speaking about his impending Passion and Death and the Cross, and Jesus starkly correcting Peter’s all too immature sanguine response to suffering. We see this also in Peter’s denial of even knowing Jesus three times the night of the Last Supper even after emphatically saying he would never deny Jesus -– again relying on his emotion rather than on God’s grace to strengthen his will to resist temptation and sin.
Contrast that with the two letters in the New Testament when Peter as Pope encourages the members of the Church to embrace the Cross and suffering as the means by which the Lord purifies us and gets us ready for Heaven, someday. It’s like night and day the difference.
If you have a sanguine temperament either primarily or secondarily, ask Saint Peter for his prayers so you also can continue to mature in a consistent resolve to follow the Lord in the ways of holiness in good times and in bad — to pray for a greater love for the Cross and not for constant earthly pleasure and good times, which is not realistic as this earthly life is meant to be a purification to get us ready for Heavenly life and union with the Blessed Trinity, not an endless party leading to nothingness.
Saint Paul is a man who hated Jesus and his followers to the point that he was actively persecuting them and even killing them (see his participation in the murder of Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr).
He is the classic example of the innate Choleric temperament that some people are born with. In modern terminology this is often referred to as a type A personality — very goal oriented and hard-driving of oneself and other people.
God saw that and intervened in Saul’s life, knocking him off “his high horse,” humbling his immense choleric sense of pride and giving him the necessary grace to channel that drive and determination for good, namely spreading the Catholic faith to the ends of the known world rather than persecuting it; and so, changing his name in the process from Saul to Paul, designating his new mission in the faith.
What an amazing change occurred over time in Paul’s life! But God had to remind him that His strength in made perfect in weakness, so important for the strong choleric temperament to learn, as they think they can do it, whatever their goals are, with their own strength, and must learn compassion and sensitivity for souls who are not choleric and not as strong in resolve as they are.
Paul grew in holiness through recognizing his own weakness and relying on the Lord in all things; and using his natural determination to never back down in sharing the Gospel with others (see the incident when he was left for dead after being stoned, and instead of shaking the dust from his feet and moving on as a melancholic, phlegmatic, or sanguine soul naturally would, he got back up literally and went back into that town the next day). Crazy and inspiring at the same time – but what a witness to how determined he was to share the Gospel.
We need to ask him to pray we have the same courage, even if most of us wouldn’t have been able to do what he did, as we don’t have that same almost pure choleric temperament. But if you do, how he can help you channel your immense determination and goal orientation.
Interestingly enough, Peter and Paul really didn’t naturally get along as their temperaments were so different, but they went beyond that because of the faith. We can do the same.
Saint Peter and Saint Paul, pray for us. God bless.
Father Rich Tomkosky is the Pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bedford and the Pastor of Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Beans Cove.
