This is the first day of Holy Week, as you know, and in the days of
the week ahead, we are going to meet some amazing people, when we
listen to and read and hear about the days when Jesus was getting
ready to die, and when he died and when he rose from the dead.
Amazing characters! Nobody could make them up. They are much too
real. And we are going to take, you and I, for a couple of minutes,
let’s take a look at three of them.

When I was a kid in high school, seminary high school, my favorite
teacher handed me a little booklet, “The Personality Types.” This
book would be regarded as very unsophisticated nowadays, no nuances.
We’re all so complicated, from all our ancestors. No one of us could
be called “this personality type.” Let’s presume that I know that and
you know that, and granted that, let’s take a look at three of them
and stereotype them because I still believe the little book. I do.
And in all my years of teaching, I would say, “Oh, that’s that
personality. That’s that one!” You don’t have to, but the important
thing is how Our Lord handled personalities like you and like me, and
healed them, and how we can help each other.

OK. Granted no nuances, granted cartoon versions, here are three:
Peter. In the little booklet he would have been described as
choleric. Choleric, hot-tempered, big mouth. Peter gave a new
dimension to the definition of the word “Blowhard!” He did, always
butting in and taking charge and telling people and.... It’s all in
the gospels. Everytime anybody has to say anything, it’s Peter,
planting both feet firmly in his mouth most of the time. But loving,
loyal, big physically probably, we gather, big.... big fisherman.
Loved Christ and wanted to take... Remember the night Our Lord is
arrested when they were in the garden, and the guards come. Peter
whips out his sword, cuts off the ear of one of the guards arresting
Jesus. Our Lord says to Peter, “Put it away. Put it away. If I
wanted to I could call hordes of angels. Put your sword away. I’ve
got to go through with this.” What a blowhard! But what a good
heart! We’re all so complicated.

Remember, Our Lord’s on trial. He’s up on the balcony. This is
Holy Week. You all know the story, since you were little kids. Our
Lord’s on the balcony.... (By the way, the historicity and the
validity of the gospels is guaranteed by every scholar in the world
today. It’s not made-up stuff. Nobody denies the historicity of these
events.) Our Lord’s on a balcony. His hands are tied. He is being
sentenced to death. And Peter is standing there, the leader, warming
his derriere by the fire. And a teenage girl (The word in Latin is
“puella.”) comes up to him, “Weren’t you hanging out with that guy?”
Teenage girl! “Uh, I don’t know what you are talking about.” She
pursues him, like many a teenager. “Wait a minute. Your whole accent.
You sound like you come from that Jesus bunch.” ....”No, I don’t
know what you’re talking about.” A third time, she says, “Yeah, you
talk like....” (Peter) “I don’t know him. I never met him!” And then
Jesus catches Peter’s eye. Jesus glances down from the balcony and he
spots Peter and Peter spots Christ. Remember what happens next?
Nobody could make this stuff up. It’s too real! And Peter goes behind
the wall. He escapes the teenage girl who intimidates him, and behind
the wall, Peter sobs, right from his gut. He just sobs and sobs and
sobs. And, in the Greek, it’s very powerful. It’s from his “viscera.”
I mean he’s convulsively sobbing with shame. Typical choleric. One
extreme to the other.

I had a couple of kids in high school. They were freshmen. They were
identical twins, two boys. Boy! Were they choleric! They even walked
choleric. And, even for freshmen, they were kind of small and they
were agressive and tough and you’d see them at lunchtime, and they’d
be yelling at each other, shaking their fists. And everything they
did was one extreme to the other. If they got mad, they forgot fast.
They got mad fast. They forgot fast. I’m told by their wives they
still are, years later. .... Well, Father, you’re stereotyping them.
I know. Let’s grant that, but they sure were classic choleric, got
mad fast and said they were sorry fast. They didn’t remember bad
stuff. Got mad. “If your face gets in the way of my moving fist, too
bad. ....I’m sorry.” And they meant it.

When Christ rose from the dead, you’ve heard these gospels since you
were children. Remember, it is about a week later after the
Resurrection. Christ is on the shore and Peter and the other guys are
fishing and then they come ashore and they spot Jesus who is making
breakfast. I mean, the gentility of Christ is peerless. He is making
breakfast, and he says to Peter, three times, “Do you love me?” ...
“Uh, you know that I love you.” Second time, “Peter do you love
me?” ... “You know that I love you.” Third time (three times to make
up for the three denials), “Peter, do you love me?” ... “You know it.
I love you.” I had a great Scripture course a few years ago at
Stanford and Father Ray Brown, great Scripture scholar, said, in the
Greek, “You know that I love you. You know that I love you. You know
if I love you.” The choleric gets beaten down gently to “I don’t
know. I better not brag. You know IF I love you.” The choleric has
become much gentler. You know anybody like that?

The second one is Nathaniel. We don’t see much or hear much about
Nathaniel. His other name in the New Testament is Bartholomew. Don’t
know too much about him. From my little booklet, I would make
Nathaniel phlegmatic, phlegmatic personality. (Yawn...) The plegmatic
personality is pretty much mellow. Mellow, relaxed, leisurely. The
phlegmatic has dropped his anchor in the schooner and he is taking a
nap. They’re restful.
They are not excitable. They are not excited. They are just (yawn)
very laid back. California... in the best sense. Nathaniel, in my
opinion, was very phlegmatic. We had some in the seminary, which I
will tell you about in a minute. Nathaniel came from money. He came
from a town called Cana which was the Blackhawk of that area. And
he’s under a tree and some of the apostles who have just met Jesus
(This is the first year where Jesus is our working.) and they come up
to Nathaniel. They wake him up and they say, “We have met this guy
named Jesus of Nazareth. C’mon. You’ve got to meet him.” Nathaniel
gets up and in classic phlegmatic style says, “Aah, can anything good
come out of Nazareth?” meaning “C’mon. It’s a third rate town. I’m
from Cana. (yawn)” And when Jesus spots Nathaniel he pays him a
beautiful compliment. The apostles are dragging Nathaniel to meet Our
Lord and the Lord spots Nathaniel coming over the horizon, and Our
Lord says, “There comes Nathaniel, a man in whom there is no guile.”
It’s a beautiful compliment for phlegmatic people and the ones I’ve
met it’s true. There’s no guile. There is no hidden agenda. There is
no micromanaging of things, of us. There’s no harboring of hate, or
love, yawn. The’re very restful.

There was one in the seminary. Let’s call him “Phil,” phlegmatic
Phil. We’re at breakfast. We have a couple of weeks before we are
going to be ordained priests, and we have to take an oral final,
oral. You stand in front of the entire faculty, all by yourself, one
after another. There are twenty-six of us. One after another.
Luckily, “D,” my name, came in fairly quickly. But we’re at breakfast
and I’m at the head of the table. I’m doling out the oatmeal and
phlegmatic Phil is at the end of the table, doing this: a big yawn. I
do not exaggerate. Yawn. And he had massive shoulders, another reason
I loathed him! And I’m doling out the oatmeal. I said, “Phil,” (and I
never snapped at anybody, much too smart to snap.) I said, “Phil, do
you know what is going to happen in one hour?” ...”Yeah, Dib,
yeah.... We are going to take the oral finals.” There was a dark
rumor. If you flunked the oral finals, some of which questions were
thrown at you in Latin, six years of material, they could postpone
your ordination. “We’re going to take the oral in about an hour,
Phil.” ... “Yeah, I know.” “How do you feel, Phil? “Oh, Dib (yawn),”
said Phil, “no sweat.” That was his epigram all through life. “No
sweat.” He got a C+. He was ordained the same hour as the rest of us.
Didn’t care. He’s as much a priest as the rest of us. The phlegmatic
personality is so restful and so calm. Sometimes you wonder if they
are in a coma, but it’s peaceful. Do you know anybody like that?

When I taught college, there was a college girl and a college guy,
upstate New York, and the young lady was melancholic and the young
guy was phlegmatic. What a disaster! He was not given to
demonstrative, verbal rhapsodies of endearment. “I luv ‘er. I luv
‘er.” No sweat.

And the last is St. Thomas. That’s the melancholic, in my opinion,
the melancholic personality. Deep, deep, love intensely, would walk
through molten lava to help you. But if they hate you, that lasts
forever. They are so sensitive. They’ve got antennae that you can
damage with the slightest breath. They love intensely and, boy, do
they hate intensely! Most canonized saints were melancholic. Most
popes, by the way, were choleric, in my opinion. OK. Thomas is called
“Doubting Thomas.” You know of the famous “Doubting Thomas.” I think
he was deeply melancholic. A week before Jesus dies, Our Lord says to
the apostles, “We are going up to Jerusalem now.” And the apostles
freak out. “You’re not going to Jerusalem. They’re planning to kill
you.” And Thomas pipes up, Thomas, none of the others. Thomas says,
“If he’s going to die, let us go up to Jerusalem and die with him.”
OK. And Our Lord goes up to Jerusalem and is arrested and he dies.

And then Christ rises from the dead and, on Easter Sunday night, he
appears in the upper room. He has a risen body, so he transcends
space and time. He goes right through the door and he sees the
apostles. Judas is dead and Thomas is out, buying matzah or
Manischewitz. But he is not there. And when he comes back, they all
rush up to Thomas, “We’ve seen the Lord. We’ve seen the Lord!” What
does Thomas say? You know. You remember. “Unless I can take my hand
and put it in his wounds and take my hand and put it where the sword
went through his side, I will not believe.” And all through the
centuries, Thomas has been called “Doubting Thomas.” I don’t think he
was doubting. Being melancholic, I think he was hurt. He was
shattered. He was the only guy who said, “I am willing to go up and
die with him.” And the one time he comes back, after death, I’m not
there? It’s hard for a grown man to say, “You hurt my feelings.” So,
he says, “I don’t believe. I’ve got to touch...” And a week later,
Christ comes back. He says to Thomas, “Come on. Come on. Come over
here. Take your hand and put it in my scars. Take your hand. Put it
in my side where the sword went. Stop disbelieving, Thomas. Believe.”
That’s what melancholic people need to hear. They need reassurance,
all the time. Their love and loyalty is intense, in my opinion, more
than any of the others. But they constantly have to be told, “You are
loved.” .... Well, that’s silly. “They should grow up!” Maybe, but
that’s the way melancholic people are. Christ is saying to Thomas and
you and me, “Be reassured. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love
you.” Then, they will do anything for you. But they hold onto
resentments. A guy insulted me in 1957. Now, this is 2008. I got out
my pocket calculator. I figured it out mathematically. That’s a long
time. 1957 to .... And I still have dreams about this guy. I do.
Nightmares. I am running away from him. I’m not kidding. ...“No, we
know you’re not, and you need help!” They need reassurance and they
need to be told, “You are loved.” And then, Thomas, because of his
pretended doubt, (but really needing love), we get this great
compliment because Our Lord.... you and I, we get this great
compliment because Our Lord says to Thomas, “OK, Thomas, you’ve seen
me and you believe me. Blessed are those who’ve never seen me and
still go on believing.” ... That’s you and I.

Now, in the gospels and in the account of Our Lord’s suffering and
death, which is going to be this week, Holy Week, you meet the most
amazing people, real people, and they show the most amazing
surprising, dazzling kindness to Christ. They do, in addition to the
soldiers and the suffering. They come from nowhere and they do this
great kindness for Christ who’s in pain. When I finally shut up, and
we have a minute or two of peace and quiet, you know, before the
prayer of the faithful, in silence, you and I will think of one thing
we said or did to help somebody who was in some kind of pain. Oh,
there are thousands that you’ve forgotten. When I was a little kid, I
thought that God had this big ledger, you know when we die, and God
has a big ledger, “Ah-hah! Here we go, mortal sins, venial sins,
imperfections! Get on line for purgatorial streams of fire.” When you
read the New Testament, the Beatitudes, Christ is saying all the
rewards he is going to give us. Blessed are you.... Blessed are
you.... “ You’ve done zillions of things you don’t even remember,
good stuff, that’ll get us into Paradise. Will you think, for a
minute, and I will too, quietly, one good thing you’ve said or done
for somebody who was in some kind of pain or trouble and, if you had
not been on the planet at that moment, it wouldn’t have been done.
Just in silence and just for a moment....