I am writing this month’s article on our Patronal Festival St. Peter and St. Paul’s Day. It is, as a cursory reading of the New Testament will reveal, an unlikely pairing. The impetuous, very human Peter, with the intellectual and reasoned Paul. They undoubtedly didn’t really get on and although their personalities and theology complemented each other, I am not sure they saw it that way. One might hope for unity in diversity, but such unity is hard won.
I have a postcard of an icon of St. Dominic meeting and embracing St. Francis. It is the same story really. Both the Franciscan and Dominican orders came about at the same time. In the twelfth century city states were growing fast and people becoming estranged from the church. The old monastic orders could not change to serve the cities, so orders of Friars arose, not tied to monasteries but free to move amongst the people.
However they were very different orders. The Dominicans were great teachers embracing the intellectual tradition and the primacy of the mind. The Franciscans sought to reach people not by argument but by love and service. They taught the primacy of the heart. There was conflict as well. Umberto Eco’s great novel “The Name of the Rose” shows some of this.
Why then does the church persist in holding Peter and Paul together and Francis and Dominic? A cynic would say it is just an attempt to brush over the differences and pretend harmony. I think cynicism would be wrong. Rather it points to the necessity in holding seemingly polar opposites equally together in tension, because that is where creativity, truth and the most benefit for the good of all, happens. It is what God in Christ does with us all the time.
In our nation’s public life, this idea is not in favour; it seems to be something that the politicians and electorate have forgotten. It is however something that good people need to hold and promote. It is for the common good.
The ultimate and perhaps most essential place where opposites need to be held in tension is of course within each of us. Paul understood this, as he says we hold this treasure (Christ) in cracked pots! I find that comforting. We are all conflicted yet are all one in God. Finding our own resolution enables us to see the bigger world and its problems in perspective.
If you want a book of spiritual teaching: for the summer, I recommend “Eager to Love”, by Richard Rohr. I also recommend “The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco.
Have a great summer!
Robin