In his Saturday meeting with priests from the diocese of Caserta, the Holy Father picked up on a priest’s use of the word “creativity” in his comment. Pope Francis’ response was long, and it meanders a good bit, but it contained an affirmation for the c-word.
It is a divine word. If it is human it is because it is a gift of God: creativity. And the commandment God gave to Adam, “Go and multiply. Be creative.” It is also the commandment that Jesus gave to his disciples, through the Holy Spirit, for example, the creativity of the early Church in its relations with Judaism: Paul was creative; Peter, that day when he went to Cornelius, was afraid of them, because he was doing something new, something creative. But he went there. Creativity is the word.
I have often heard Peter and Paul contrasted lately. Peter, the guardian of tradition and Paul, the impulsive missionary. Two lungs of Rome? Peter, the one untrained in theology, is fearful, but he engages the Gentile world. Paul, the one steeped in pharisaical formation, is the one presented in the Bible as pushing beyond his Jewish roots. Pope Francis says creative.
Where do we find this creativity? Tune in to the next post.
Catholic Sensibility 
For me, the signature qualities of Peter are his impulsiveness in blurting out things and his openness to messiness of loving. He leads with his heart, even when the answer is wrong or hurtful. And he learns to accept the consequences of that without trying to effect a personality transfer. The Peter who fearlessly preaches in Acts, who engages Gentiles without prior authorisation, who intervenes with Paul about Paul’s even more audacious outreach, is very credibly the same Peter who left a boat, who confesses Jesus as Christ, who walks on water (and sinks), who denies Jesus thrice, and who woundedly thrice affirms his love of the Risen Lord. We have a lot of words about the kerygma of Paul in the New Testament, but we need to spend as much time on Peter’s kerygma of action.