March 19, 2023 - "Catherine of Siena"

Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) lived in a very troubled time in the history of the Church as well as in Italy and the whole of Europe.  When I consider her impact on the times in which she lived, I am reminded that even in turbulent times the Lord brings forth saints who give a jolt to minds and hearts that often provoke conversion and renewal.  This gives me hope for our contemporary situation.
 
Catherine was born into a very large family in Siena.  When Catherine was sixteen years old, she entered the Third Order Dominicans, the female branch known as the Mantellate.  While she was living at home, she confirmed a private vow of virginity that she had made previously and dedicated herself to prayer, penance, and works of charity, especially for the benefit of the sick.
 
When she became famous because of her reputation for holiness, she became a promoter of an intense activity of spiritual activity for people from every walk of life:  nobles and politicians, artists and ordinary people, consecrated men and women and religious, including Pope Gregory XI, who was living at Avignon during that period.  A true spiritual family gradually coalesced around her as she was a strong and genuine personality.  Catherine was a young woman with a most exalted lifestyle.  Many in her spiritual family were also impressed by mystical phenomena that they witnessed, such as her frequent ecstasies.  Many put themselves at her service and considered it a privilege to receive spiritual guidance.  Even though she was a young woman they called her “mother” because, as her spiritual children, they drew spiritual nourishment from her.
 
Another trait of Catherine’s spirituality is linked to the gift of tears, which express an exquisite and profound sensitivity, a capacity for being moved and for tenderness.  Pope Benedict in his talk on St. Catherine of Siena observed that many saints have had the gift of tears, renewing the emotion of Jesus who did not hold back or hide his tears at the tomb of his friend Lazarus and at the grief of Mary and Martha or at the sight of Jerusalem during his last days of this earth.  According to Catherine, the tears of the saints are mingled with the blood of Christ, of which she spoke in vibrant tomes and with symbolic images that were very effective: “Remember Christ crucified, God and man… Make your aim the Crucified Christ, hide in the wounds of the Crucified Christ and drown in the blood of the Crucified Christ.”  Pope Benedict observes that here we can understand why, despite her awareness of the human shortcomings of priests, Catherine always felt very great reverence for them: through the sacraments and the Word they dispense the saving power of Christ’s blood.  Catherine always invited the sacred ministers, including the Pope whom she called “sweet Christ on earth,” to be faithful to their responsibilities, motivated always and only by her profound and constant love for the Church.  In the Dialogue of Divine Providence, she describes Christ with an unusual image:  as a bridge flung between Heaven and earth.  This bridge consists of three great stairways constituted by the feet, the side, and the mouth of Jesus. 
 
Rising by these stairways the soul passes through the three stages of every path to sanctification: detachment from sin; the practice of virtues and of love; sweet and loving union with God.
 
I am going to conclude this column with the remarks that Pope Benedict made at the end of  his catechesis on St. Catherine of Siena:
Dear brothers and sisters, let us learn from St. Catherine to love Christ and the Church with courage, intensely and sincerely.  Therefore let us make our own St. Catherine’s words that we read in the Dialogue of Divine Providence at the end of the chapter that speaks of Christ as a bridge: “Out of mercy you have washed us in your Blood, out of mercy you have wished to converse with creatures. O crazed with love! It did not suffice for you to take flesh, but you also wished to die!....O mercy! My heart drowns in thinking of you: for no matter where I turn to think, I find only mercy” (chapter 30…).
 
Until next week,
Fr. John