A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. Jesus said to his disciples, do not let your hearts be troubled. Have faith in God and faith in me. In my father's house, there are many dwelling places. Otherwise, how could I have told you that I was going to prepare a place for you?
I am indeed going to prepare a place for you. And then I shall come back to take you with me, that where I am, you also may be. You know the way that leads where I go. Lord, said Thomas, we do not know where you are going. So how can we know the way?
Jesus replied, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. And this is the gospel, the good news of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. Today, we are celebrating the feast of Saint Catherine of Siena.
She lived only thirty three years. In the fourth century, 1347 to 1480, she lived only thirty three years. Actually, her what you would call her active life was only 12. And in going back and refreshing my memory about her, I am more confused than ever about this dear lady. Here's a girl, she was the twenty third child, born of her mother and father.
Maybe not the last, but she was the twenty third and a twin. Now that's a fairly good sized family. That's like running a boarding school. Her father, we're told, was a very cooperative spiritual man. And one article I read said that the mother was just an average housewife.
You know, I I resent that kind of talk. What in the world's an average housewife of Siena in the fourteenth century? The reason the author said that is the father encouraged and supported his daughter, Catherine, in her meanderings, because they were pretty mysterious, while her mother, who was a good solid citizen, thought the best thing could happen to her was to to to prepare herself for a good marriage. So there was a conflict there. Notice, she's not yet seven and she is the source of conflict between her mother and her father in a family of 23 children.
You could have a civil war there. That's just one of the little We don't know when she learned to write because her most of her writing she dictated. We don't know when she learned to read. It was on a late it was at a later date. Now notice she is the church holds her up as a mystic, as a virgin, and as a doctor of the church.
And that puts her in the place with Saint Bernard, Saint Thomas, Saint Bonaventure, you know, the whole category. And here's a woman or a girl who at a when she was in her teens, we're not sure she could even read. Where did she get a hold of all this stuff when they tell her when they tell us I haven't read much of her writings. They're mostly letters, where did she get it? When we're told that her doctrine is reflects Saint Augustine of Hippo, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, and indirectly Saint Thomas of Aquinas, where did she get it?
Furthermore, she was a she before she was seven, or about the age of seven, a little later than that, she became a third order member of the Dominicans. And it was the Dominican mysticism that guided her, and it was Dominican spiritual directors who guided her. But we're told that her doctrine leans heavily upon Saint Augusta of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. It's an absolutely astounding life. At about the age of seven, she has some kind of a revelation.
Now here again, you know, I time and again I say about these private personal religious experiences. You cannot downgrade them, you cannot eliminate them, you cannot disregard them. What they mean, how they operate, the authenticity of it, that's another question. But from a phenomenological point of view, looking at simply as an event, it's beyond dispute. Because here at the age of about seven, she has a vision in which she is convinced God calls her to serve him and him alone.
So she takes a vow of virginity. What does a girl of seven know about taking vows of virginity? That's always been a puzzle to me. In the course of her life she had at least two or three or four of these very direct revelations from God. She is supposed to have had this stigma but only she could see and feel it.
How do you explain things like this? And all of this, you know, isn't what made her a great saint, not at all. She's great on The contradiction, the paradox of her life is absolutely extraordinary. Because here's an unknown girl in a family of 23 kids coming from a little town of Siena, who is illiterate, has no social position, has no authority whatsoever behind her. She doesn't even belong to the first order, she's only a third order, with all due, you know, apologies to third order religious.
She never got she was never in a convent. She never lived a community life. And yet this girl who dies at the age of 33, played an important role in the politics of Europe. She's the one who got after Gregory the eleventh up in Avignon. She played an important role in bringing the Curia, the Holy See, back to Rome.
It was up there in Avignon, the French had taken it. Maybe some of you have been to Avignon, it's a tremendous thing. This girl had a tremendous influence in bringing the papacy back to Rome. How do you what do you think of that? She played an important part in the crusades against or trying to get a crusade going against the Turks.
And then once even then when the papacy comes back to Rome, as you will recall This is about towards 1380. What happens then? Urban the fourth comes onto the scene. And here we have then the beginning of these we had two and three popes. The unity of the church is destroyed.
She played a big role in trying to do something to restore the unity of the church. And we're talking about a girl who's under 33 with no position, with no education to speak of, with no position, with no background, with no authority, with no wealth, with no armies. What in the world did she have? How did she get that kind of influence? It's a mystery to me.
I have no way of doing it. She is not one of the saints that I think most of us can hold up as an ideal to practice to imitate. We're not asked to imitate the saints. What we are asked is to follow in a certain sense. Because right away, you see, as soon as I think of while I'm talking to you, back of my head is is mother Seaton all the time.
And I'm thinking of the contrast between those two women, not just in time, but in their whole approach to life, and they're both saints. And the mystery of this thing is tremendous. The one thing that comes through to me when reading the lives of these saints, and I mean not the myths of the saints, but trying to get at the reality of their lives. The one thing that comes through translucently clear is that they all tried to do the will of God as they saw it where they were. They didn't say I'm going to do it tomorrow.
They didn't say if only if only I were better educated, I could do this. If only I were more holy, I could do this. If only I were older, I could do this. If only I were younger, I could do this. If only I had a better marriage, I could do this.
If only I had never married, I could do this. If only I had married, I could do this. You know, all of this is rubbish. Rubbish. Rubbish.
Because it is all unreal. It is all a fiction. It is can be profoundly self deceptive. It's like saying, I'll write that letter to Mary or Jack tomorrow. Yeah.
You know tomorrow. It's a very safe thing to say. Never, never comes. So that's the that the main thing is that we have to to try to see God's will. And that is most that isn't as opaque as as it as we think it is.
Because in many instances, it's right before us. The only trouble is we don't like it. We don't like it. Because if you if you read the lives of these saints, I mean the authentic and getting at the truth of it, in many instances what they did for God, they got carbored for it. Really carbored.
There's not a single saint that I know had an easy life of it, trying to do God's will. We look back and say, what a wonderful person. Look at what she accomplished. Look what he accomplished. And we think everybody bowed down and say, oh, yes.
You you're great. We will follow you. What you say and teach makes sense. You are God's messenger. All we do yes.
This is absolutely the contrary. It is not that way. It is not that way. It is never that way. I'm prepared to take that stance.
And you see, why talk about saints? Let's go to Jesus Christ. He's the one who brought the message. And what reception did he get? Look at the look at the smooth path that Christ trod in this life.
Very easy, you see. He's the Son of God, so it was just as smooth as a ribbon. Was it? Look at the cross there, that's where he wound up. So when we the lies of the saints are not to dissuade us.
They are not to disturb us. They are to encourage us. Here is the girl who had nothing going for her, nothing. And yet today, in the twentieth century in Garrett Park, we are celebrating the feast of this young woman who died at 33 in 1380. And we are celebrating her feast as a virgin, as a mystic, and as a doctor of the church.
That's the company we keep. In the name of the father, and of the son, holy spirit. Amen.