A reading of the holy gospel according to Luke. Jesus entered a village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Martha had a sister named Mary, and Mary seated herself at the Lord's feet to listen to his words. Martha, on the other hand, who was busy with all the details of hospitality, came to Jesus and said to him, Lord, are you not concerned that my sister has left me all alone to do all the household tasks? Tell her to help me.
The lord in reply said to Martha, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and upset about many things. One thing only is required. Mary has chosen the better portion, and she shall not be deprived of it. This is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.
Amen. In the light of this feast of Saint Catherine of Siena, fourteenth century Dominican nun who made a vow of virginity at the age of seven and had a struggle to keep it more than usual. I find these readings hard to synchronize with her life. This story of Martha and Mary always leaves me ambivalent. I think my sympathies are largely with Martha because when you look at the life I think the impact of the reading is to emphasize the life of contemplation, prayer, retirement, and so forth.
I think that's it. Well, if you look at the life of Saint Catherine of Siena, it was an extremely active life. She is one of the few women saints who has the title of doctor of the church. She lived I think she died only after I don't think she reached her 30 year or something like that. She died very young.
And in the course of those few years that she had and starting out her life or her career, you might say, as an adult, as a nun, a Dominican nun, she wound up in those few short years as being one of the most influential powers in Europe. She played a very important role in resolving the terrible situation of having two or three popes. It was largely due to her that the situation in Avignon was resolved. Her life reads like something out of n o w. Don't know why she isn't the patron saint of the women's lib.
She certainly has put in a lot of work for it. I don't think it was one of her ambitions, though, to be a great woman. All she wanted to be was a great saint or try to be. And in pursuing that, as she saw the need, she achieved truly greatness. Now I'm not exaggerating this.
Saint Catherine of Siena, fourteenth century nun, died about the age of 33. Even if you say she died at the age of 40, that's just about half the average life of a woman today. And here's a girl born in a little old village, you might say. She was nothing backing her up. No wealthy family, no influence, not from the ability or the aristocracy.
She was a nobody. Well, so was Jesus Christ a nobody, to keep that in mind. To all appearances, he was an illegitimate son. To all appearances, he was a disobedient son. So Saint Catherine of Siena, at least in her life's beginnings, had all the makings of being a follower of Christ.
And yet in these few short years, that young woman, she died a young woman, played a fantastically decisive, notice, a decisive role in the councils of kings, popes, and emperors. Now that's really something. Her her life reads as I like like a fairy story. And yet she was about as different, as utterly different from an NOW champion as you can imagine. And so I don't know why, I really do not know why, some of these great women who achieved greatness even in on the world standards.
Look at Saint Teresa of Avila. I don't care how you weigh their lives as as writers, as people of practical achievement, as administrators, as holy people, they they they are really extraordinary. And yet, how seldom are they held up to our women folk, old and young women folk? How often? And if they are, they're barely names.
And yet there is nothing so stimulating to the young and the old, to all of us, than to see in the human flesh somebody that we can say, if they did it, so can I? You can read all the books you want. You can have all the exhortations you want. There is nothing so attractive, so encouraging, so uplifting, so invigorating. I love that word encouraging, to put heart into as to have somebody out there who shows us the way.
And people like Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Teresa of Avila, and then, as we say, the little flower, Saint Teresa of Lisieux, an entirely different kind of person. But look what she achieved. And yet these women who have made these great dents because, as I say, no matter how you look at it, they're there. They lived. They had their being.
They left a history. They didn't leave a myth. We know a lot about these people. Good, solid, historical fact. Let's make more of it.
And when we hold these people up, remember this, we're not holding them up merely as a human ideal. That we can say, well, they showed us the way, they broke the path, they will give us encouragement. They will, by their example, ah, there's more to it than that. There's more to it than that. They are by our side in fact.
This is what we mean by the church militant. That's where we belong, the fighting church. We're fighting for our lives, each one of us, for our salvation, And we're not alone. We are in good company, not in the company of a memory, but in the company of an actuality. Keep try to get if we can only get this into our heads.
We are not isolated. John Doone said something about a man in an island. We are not islands at all. If we are, it's a well populated island. We are surrounded by men and women, saints of God, not as memories, not as heroic models, but as troopers right beside us, all around us, holding up our arms in actuality.
This is what we believe by the church. This is what we mean by the church. The church triumphant, the church suffering, the church militant. That's where we are. We are warriors, So let us never let us not think of ourselves as so alone.
Now only yesterday I had an experience where a fine person feels completely abandoned. Well, remember, you're in good company when you feel that way. What were what were Christ's words from the cross? My god, my god, why have you abandoned me? Every person who's tried to follow Christ knows what this is.
But the point is, when we feel most alone is when we need most to assure ourselves that we are not alone. We are not fighting a lonely solitary fight. We are in good company. We are in superb company. And if we could only make this vivid in our daily lives, it would mean so much that we have the example us of these men and women who have lived as we would like and are trying in our way to live, but we have much more going for us than just that.
We have the actuality of their intercession with God almighty. That we believe is a real, actual, present, existential fact. Let's rest our case on it. In the name of the father and of the son and the holy spirit. Amen.