As indicated in the last posting dealing with the Year of Paul, the two charisms -- of Peter and of Paul -- have had an impact in the lifetime of many alive today without their even knowing it!
Fr. Bryan Byrne, in the article cited previously, noted that the Pauline charism gather much impetus during the time of the Reformation. You might ask "What?" During that period of European history, the sixteenth century, religion was much more than a personal decision. Religion had become the foundation of society. It was a time when Christian humanism became very evident in communities. There was an effort to take the impact of the Renaissance and bring it to life in the reformative actions and thinking. There was a spiritual revival in mysticism most prominent in Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ. In all that was happening was the vision, the hope to improve life. In a way we see in this historical period the surge of the Pauline charism -- "the challenge ... to traditional understanding and practice" that is likewise spurred on by the enthusiasm and challenge experienced in missionary activity.
The Church, clearly threatened by the Reformers' activities and movements that brought about division, turned to the Paterine charism to restore control and the preservation of tradition. In the 1870s the Petrine charism reached it resurgence with Rome's "definition of papal primacy and infallibility ...." This took place during Vatican Council One! The Petrine charism, it can be said, again repressed the spirit of the Pauline charism in the decades to follow. Then there came another Vatican Council, the second one.
Fr. Byrne noted that Vatican Council was the effort of the Catholic faithful trying to revive the spirit of the first great missionary of our Church, Paul of Tarsus. Many of us can recall the turmoil, the division created by the various consequences of the newer, freer Vatican Council. Priests and religious departed the Church; laity moved to mainline faith practices. The decrees of Vatican Council Two were too much for many. The new spirit, the fresh air that Pope John XXIII had brought into the Church, frightened many -- so called "liberals" and "conservatives" alike. All of this occurred when society was itself in turmoil and the revolutionary days of 1960s.
Caught in the struggle between the two charisms and the second pontifical leader of Vatican Council Two was a small man, a delicate man of Italian diplomatic heritage, names Giovanni Montini. He was elected Pope during the Council and chose the name Paul VI.
Most Catholics today wonder what happened to Vatican Council Two. Today, so it seems, many Catholics have departed from the Church and many are questioning why they remain in the Church. Clearly the thrust of Vatican Council Two can be said to have lost its energy, its thrust. Perhaps one of the blessings that our Church can embrace during the Year of Paul is the "chance to redress the balance."
Most Catholics without doubt would hardly see the struggles that led to the repressions expressed in the decrees of the Council of Trent and the weakening of Vatican II as the struggle between the charisms of our Church's earliest and primary pillars, Peter and Paul.
American scholar, E. P. Sanders initiated a flow of scholarly study and discussion. Sanders writing has prompted what is called the "New Perspective on Paul."
So, what has this to do with our daily prayer? Know Paul's writings and what he is teaching. It is important. From Paul we can get a hint of the way Paul heard the voice of God. It is a reason for our trying to perceive how the Holy Spirit was touching the mind and heart of our first century missionary. Tomorrow we will look at what the New Perspective has stirred up in scriptural study especially as Paul's writings impact relations between Catholicism and Judaism.
