Jesus had a special love for James and John, the “sons of thunder,” even if he needed to rebuke them occasionally. And his choice for the apostle to the Gentiles was potentially a very difficult case. One wonders what Ananias and the others whose task it was to help Saint Paul into the local Church at Damascus shortly after his conversion must have felt. He was hardly the model seminarian too often posited by a sleepy and decaying Christendom — friendly, mild, and no trouble.
