29 April 2022
Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
“Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting.”
Today’s is the memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, mystic and doctor of the Church. Catherine was a lay woman and a 3rd order Dominican who was famous for her works of charity in her city. As a doctor of the church, her writings hold a privileged place in the Christian spiritual tradition for her insights on prayer and virtue. One of her insights on virtue was on the virtue of Charity – for God and neighbor.
She wrote that true charity for one’s neighbor flows from coming to understand God’s merciful love for herself first. Christian charity is rooted in gratitude for God’s merciful love. St. Paul writes: “God proves his love for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s love that is offered to us without our merit, and saves us, is the same love that Catherine understood we are called to love God and others in return.
Catherine writes, reflecting on God’s love for us and our call to love God: “Since she has learned that she can be of no profit to me [God] nor return to me [God] the same pure love with which she feels herself loved by me, she sets herself to repaying my love through the means I established – her neighbors…You must love with the same pure love with which I [God] love you. But you cannot do this for me because I love you without being loved and without any self-interest…But you must give this love to other people, loving them without being loved by them. You must love them without any concern for your own spiritual or material profit, but only for the glory and praise of my name, because I love them. In this way you will fulfill the whole commandment of the Law, which is to love me about all things and your neighbor as your very self” [From her Dialogues].
This is the love of Christ on the Cross; of the Apostles in the book of Acts; and of Catherine in her lifetime. Let us pray for ways to love our family and neighbors in this way this Easter season.