Let your kindness be known to all. Philippians 4:5
January 24, 2018 - Feast of St. Francis de Sales Francis de Sales,
The holy bishop and doctor of the Church we celebrate today is universally known as the saint of gentleness. You might be surprised, dear friends, to know that St. Francis de Sales had a naturally occurring temper known as "choleric." A human being's personality is the sum, so to speak, of character plus life experiences, especially the values—or, unfortunately, the disvalues—that one makes one's own.
To understand the incredible work of God's grace and, at the same time, the immense effort made by Francis to build his personality to the point of being considered a living icon of Jesus, meek and humble of heart, we must recall some elements of psychology.
To summarize as best we can, dear friends, according to psychology, character is the psychophysical structure with which one is born. It cannot be changed, but it can be educated.
According to René Le Senne, there are eight traits that depend on the combination of three fundamental elements plus a personal variable. The fundamental elements that form a character are activity, emotionality, and resonance.
What activity and emotionality are is not difficult to understand, while with regard to resonance, one can be Primary (the person acts immediately, without much reflection) or Secondary (the person is inclined to think and reflect a lot on life events).
The personal variable is the openness of consciousness; we could define it as the degree of sensitivity that varies from person to person.
One of these traits is the so-called "choleric." The "formula," so to speak, of the choleric is this: The choleric is Active, Emotional, and Primary. Being primary, the choleric struggles to control their activity and emotionality. The memorial of St. Francis de Sales that we celebrate today, dear friends, helps us understand that we can and must, with God's help, cultivate our character, whatever it may be. In fact, this great saint, "choleric" by temperament, managed, with the grace of God, to achieve such control over his irritability that he became universally known as the Saint of gentleness. A living icon of Jesus, meek and humble of heart.