Ardour is the first trait which one feels in approaching the character of
Catherine; but the second is fidelity. Neither the one nor the other
flagged till the hour of her death. In the grave and tranquil words of
this letter we can see, yet more clearly, perhaps, than in the fervid
utterances of hours of excitement or crisis, how profound was her
conception of the Church, how fixed her resolution to sacrifice herself
for "that sweet Bride." Gregory has returned to Italy, and Catherine is
knowing a brief respite from public responsibilities in the comparative
retirement of Siena. But peace is not yet made with Florence, nor is the
reform of the Church even begun. Her heart, however, refuses to harbour
discouragement, and seeking as ever to hold others to the same steady
pitch of faith and consecration which she herself maintained, she writes
to the secretary of the Pope. He appears to have been a holy man who
shared her aspirations, but he was evidently disheartened by the apparent
failure of his efforts and by the necessary absorption in external things
of a life dedicated to public affairs. Catherine's keen analysis leaves
Nicholas of Osimo no excuse for indolence. Her letter, especially in the
earlier portion, reads like a paraphrase of Newman's fine verses on
"Sensitiveness":--
"Time was, I shrank from what was right
For fear of what was wrong:
I would not mingle in the fight
Because the foe was strong:
"But now I cast that finer sense
And sorer shame aside:
Such dread of sin was indolence,
Such aim at heaven was pride.
"So, when my Saviour calls, I rise,
And calmly do my best,
Leaving to Him, with silent eyes
Of hope and fear, the rest.
"I step, I mount, where He has led;
Men count my haltings o'er;
I know them; yet, though self I dread,
I love His precept more."
In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary:
Dearest and most reverend father in Christ sweet Jesus: I Catherine,
servant and slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, write to you in His
precious Blood: with desire to see you a firm pillar, that shall never
move, except in God; never avoiding or refusing the toils and labours laid
on you in the mystical body of Holy Church, the sweet Bride of Christ--
neither for the ingratitude and ignorance you found among those who feed
in that garden, nor from the weariness that might afflict us from seeing
the affairs of the Church get into a disorderly state. For it often
happens that when a man is spending all his efforts on something, and it
does not come about in the way or to the end that he wants, his mind falls
into weariness and sadness, as if he reflected and said: "It is better for
thee to give up this enterprise which thou hast begun and worked on so
long, and it is not yet come to an end: and to seek peace and quiet in thy
own mind." Then the soul ought to reply boldly, hungering for the honour
of God and the salvation of souls, and decline personal consolation, and
say: "I will not avoid or flee from labour, for I am not worthy of peace
and quiet of mind. Nay, I wish to remain in that state which I have
chosen, and manfully to give honour to God with my labour, and my labour
to my neighbour." Yet sometimes the devil, to make our enterprises weary
us, when we feel little peace of mind, will make a suggestion to the man,
saying in his thought: "I am doing more harm in this thing than I am
deserving good. So I would gladly run away from it, not on account of the
labour, but because I do not want to do harm." Oh, dearest father, do not
yield either to yourself or the devil, nor believe him, when he puts such
thoughts into your heart and mind; but embrace your labour with gladness
and ardent desire, and without any servile fear.
And do not be afraid to do wrong in this; for wrong is shown to us in a
disordered and perverse will. For when the will is not settled in God,
then one does wrong. The time of the soul is not lost because it may be
deprived of consolations, and of saying its office and many psalms, and
cannot say them at the right time or place, or with that peace of mind
which it would itself wish. Nay, it is occupied wholly for God. So it
ought not to feel pain in its mind--especially when it is labouring and
working for the Bride of Christ. For in whatever way or concerning
whatever matter we are labouring for her, it is so deserving and gives
such pleasure to God, that our intellect does not suffice to see or
imagine it.
I recall, dearest father, a servant of God to whom it was shown how
pleasing this service is to Him; I tell this that you may be encouraged to
bear labours for Holy Church. This servant of God, as I understood, having
one time among others an intense desire to shed her blood and her life and
annihilate her very consciousness for Holy Church, the Bride of Christ,
lifted the eye of her mind to know that she had no being in herself, and
to know the goodness of God toward her--that is, to see how God through
love had given her being and all gifts and graces that follow from being.
So, seeing and tasting such love and such depths of mercy, she saw not how
she could respond to God except by love. But because she could be of no
use to Him, she could not show her love; therefore she gave herself to
considering whether she found anyone to love through Him, by whom she
might show love. So she saw that God loved supremely His rational
creatures, and she found the same love to all that was given to herself,
for all are loved of God. This was the means she found (which showed
whether she loved God or not) by which she could be of use. So then she
rose ardently, full of charity to her neighbours, and conceived such love
for their salvation that she would willingly have given her life for it.
So the service which she could not render to God she desired to render to
her neighbour. And when she had realized that it befitted her to respond
by means of her neighbour, and thus to render Him love for love--as God by
means of the Word, His Son, has shown us love and mercy--so, seeing that
by means of desire for the salvation of souls, giving honour to God and
labour to one's neighbour, God was well pleased--she looked then to see in
what garden and upon what table the neighbour might be enjoyed.
Then Our Saviour showed her, saying: "Dearest daughter, it befits thee to
eat in the garden of my Bride, upon the table of the most holy Cross,
giving thy suffering, and crucified desire, and vigils and prayers, and
every activity that thou canst, without negligence. Know that thou canst
not have desire for the salvation of souls without having it for Holy
Church; for she is the universal body of all creatures who share the light
of holy faith, who can have no life if they are not obedient to My Bride.
Therefore, thou oughtest to desire to see thy Christian neighbours, and
the infidels and every rational creature, feeding in this garden, under
the yoke of holy obedience, clothed in the light of living faith, and with
good and holy works--for faith without works is dead. This is the common
hunger and desire of that whole body. But now I say and will that thou
grow yet more in hunger and desire, and hold thee ready to lay down thy
life, if need be, in especial, in the mystical body of Holy Church, for
the reform of My Bride. For when she is reformed, the profit of the whole
world will follow. How? Because through darkness, and ignorance, and self-
love, and impurities, and swollen pride, darkness and death are born in
the souls of her subjects. So I summon thee and my other servants to
labour in desire, in vigils, and prayer, and every other work, according
to the skill which I give you; for I tell thee that the labour and service
offered her are so pleasing to me, that not only they shall be rewarded in
My servants who have a sincere and holy intention, but also in the
servants of the world, who often serve her through self-love, though also
many a time through reverence for Holy Church. Wherefore I tell thee that
there is no one who serves her reverently--so good I hold this service--
who shall not be rewarded; and I tell thee that such shall not see eternal
death. So, likewise, in those who wrong and serve ill and irreverently My
Bride, I shall not let that wrong go unpunished, by one way or another."
Then, as she saw such greatness and generosity in the goodness of God, and
perceived what ought to be done to please Him more, the flame of desire so
increased that had it been possible for her to give her life for Holy
Church a thousand times a day, and from now till the final judgment day,
it seemed to her that it would be less than a drop of wine in the sea. And
so it really is.
I wish you, then, and summon you, to labour for her as you have always
done; yea, you are a pillar, who have placed yourself to support and help
this Bride. So you ought to be, as I said--so that neither tribulation nor
consolation should ever stir you. Nor because many contrary winds are
blowing to hinder those who walk in the way of truth, ought we for any
reason to look back. Therefore I said that I desired to see you a firm
pillar. Up, then, dearest and sweetest father: because it is our hour to
give for that Bride honour to God and labour to her. I beg you, by the
love of Christ crucified, to pray the holy father that he adopt zealously,
without negligence, every remedy which can be found consistent to his
conscience for the reform of Holy Church and peace to this great war which
is damning so many souls, since for all negligence and lukewarmness God
will rebuke Him most severely, and will demand the souls who through this
are perishing. Commend me to him; and I ask him humbly for his
benediction. I say no more. Remain in the holy and sweet grace of God.
Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love.
TO MISSER LORENZO DEL PINO OF BOLOGNA,
DOCTOR IN DECRETALS (WRITTEN IN TRANCE)
The familiar but ever-noble theology with which this letter opens, leads
first to a severe description of the unworthy and mercenary man, which is
followed by a temperately wise discussion of the true use of worldly
pleasures and goods. "Whatever God has made is good and perfect," says
Catherine--"except sin, which was not made by Him, and so is not worthy of
love." The modern religious Epicureanism which would applaud this
sentiment would, however, be less contented with the sequel; for Catherine
never forgets the anti-modern position that, though possession be
legitimate to the Christian, it is, after all, "more perfect to renounce
than to possess," and that the man who has preserved true detachment of
mind towards this world's goods will, by inevitable logic, come to hunger,
sooner or later, for detachment in deed.
It is a curiously tranquil letter to have been written in trance. Whatever
the mysterious condition may have been, it evidently did not rob Catherine
of her mental sanity and sobriety. The Doctor of Laws to whom it was
addressed was a person of considerable importance in the public and legal
life of his time. One cannot help suspecting a personal bearing in the
severe description of the hard man--evidently a lawyer--who makes the poor
wait before giving them counsel: yet, perhaps, the suspicion is
unwarranted, and the letter carried to Misser Lorenzo nothing more
searching than a general account of the temptations to which his
profession was subject.
In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary:
Dearest brother and son in Christ sweet Jesus: I Catherine, servant and
slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, write to you in His precious Blood:
with desire to see you a lover and follower of truth and a despiser of
falsehood. But this truth cannot be possessed or loved if it is not known.
Who is Truth? God is the Highest and Eternal Truth. In whom shall we know
Him? In Christ sweet Jesus, for He shows us with His Blood the truth of
the Eternal Father. His truth toward us is this, that He created us in His
image and likeness to give us life eternal, that we might share and enjoy
His Good. But through man's sin this truth was not fulfilled in him, and
therefore God gave us the Word His Son, and imposed this obedience on Him,
that He should restore man to grace through much endurance, purging the
sin of man in His own Person, and manifesting His truth in His Blood. So
man knows, by the unsearchable love which he finds shown to him through
the Blood of Christ crucified, that God nor seeks nor wills aught but our
sanctification. For this end we were created; and whatever God gives or
permits to us in this life, He gives that we may be sanctified in Him. He
who knows this truth never jars with it, but always follows and loves it,
walking in the footsteps of Christ crucified. And as this sweet loving
Word, for our example and teaching, despised the world and all delights,
and chose to endure hunger and thirst, shame and reproach, even to the
shameful death on the Cross, for the honour of the Father and our
salvation, so does he who is the lover of the truth which he knows in the
light of most holy faith, follow this way and these footsteps. For without
this light it could not be known; but when a man has the light, he knows
it, and knowing it, loves it, and becomes a lover of what God loves, and
hates what God hates.
There is this difference between him who loves the truth and him who hates
it. He who hates the truth, lies in the darkness of mortal sin. He hates
what God loves, and loves what God hates. God hates sin, and the
inordinate joys and luxuries of the world, and such a man loves it all,
fattening himself on the world's wretched trifles, and corrupting himself
in every rank. If he has an office in which he ought to minister in some
way to his neighbour, he serves him only so far as he can get some good
for himself out of it, and no farther, and becomes a lover of himself.
Christ the Blessed gave His life for us, and such a man will not give one
word to serve his neighbour unless he sees it paid, and overpaid. If the
neighbour happens to be a poor man who cannot pay, he makes him wait
before telling him the truth, and often does not tell it to him at all,
but makes fun of him; and where he ought to be pitiful and a father of the
poor, he becomes cruel to his own soul because he wrongs the poor. But the
wretched man does not see that the Highest Judge will return to him
nothing else than what he receives from him, since every sin is justly
punished and every good rewarded. Christ embraced voluntary poverty and
was a lover of continence; the wretched man who has made himself a
follower and lover of falsehood does just the contrary; not only does he
fail to be content with what he has, or to refrain through love of virtue,
but he robs other people. Nor does he remain content in the state of
marriage, in which, if it is observed as it should be, a man can stay with
a good conscience; but he plunges into every wretchedness, like a brute
beast, without moderation, and as the pig rolls in filth, so does he in
the filth of impurity.
But we might say: "What shall I do, who have riches, and am in the state
of marriage, if these things bring damnation to my soul?" Dearest brother,
a man can save his soul and receive the life of grace into himself, in
whatever condition he may be; but not while he abides in guilt of mortal
sin. For every condition is pleasing to God, and He is the acceptor, not
of men's conditions, but of holy desire. So we may hold to these things
when they are held with a temperate will; for whatever God has made is
good and perfect, except sin, which was not made by Him, and therefore is
not worthy of love. A man can hold to riches and worldly place if he
likes, and he does not wrong God nor his own soul; but it would be greater
perfection if he renounced them, because there is more perfection in
renunciation than in possession. If he does not wish to renounce them in
deed, he ought to renounce and abandon them with holy desire, and not to
place his chief affections upon them, but upon God alone; and let him keep
these things to serve his own needs and those of his family, like a thing
that is lent and not like his own. So doing, he will never suffer pain
from any created thing; for a thing that is not possessed with love is
never lost with sorrow. So we see that the servants of the world, lovers
of falsehood, endure very great sufferings in their life, and bitter
tortures to the very end. What is the reason? The inordinate love they
have for themselves and for created things, which they love apart from
God. For the Divine Goodness has permitted that every inordinate affection
should be unendurable to itself.
Such a man as this always believes falsehood, because there is no
knowledge of truth in him. And he thinks to hold to the world and abide in
delights, to make a god of his body, and of the other things that he loves
immoderately a god, and he must leave them all. We see that either he
leaves them by dying, or God permits that they be taken from him first.
Every day we see it. For now a man is rich, and now poor; to-day he is
exalted in worldly state, and to-morrow he is cast down; now he is well,
and now ill. So all things are mutable, and are taken from us when we
think to clasp them firmly; or we are snatched away from them by death.
So you see that all things pass. Then, seeing that they pass, they should
be possessed with moderation in the light of reason, loved in such wise as
they should be loved. And he who holds them thus will not hold them with
the help of sin, but with grace; with generosity of heart, and not with
avarice; in pity for the poor, and not in cruelty; in humility, not in
pride; in gratitude, not in ingratitude: and will recognize that his
possessions come from his Creator, and not himself. With this same
temperate love he will love his children, his friends, his relatives, and
all other rational beings. He will hold the condition of marriage as
ordained, and ordained as a Sacrament; and will have in respect the days
commanded by Holy Church. He will be and live like a man, and not a beast;
and will be, not indeed ascetic, but continent and self-controlled. Such a
man will be a fruitful tree, that will bear the fruits of virtue, and will
be fragrant, shedding perfume although planted in the earth; and the seed
that issues from him will be good and virtuous.
So you see that you can have God in any condition; for the condition is
not what robs us of Him, but the evil will alone, which, when it is set on
loving falsehood, is ill-ordered and corrupts a man's every work. But if
he loves truth, he follows the footsteps of truth; so he hates what truth
hates and loves what truth loves, and then his every work is good and
perfect. Otherwise it would not be possible for him to share the life of
grace, nor would any work of his bear living fruit.
So, knowing no other way, I said that I desired to see you a lover and
follower of truth and despiser of falsehood; hating the devil the father
of lies, and your own lower nature, that follows such a parent; and loving
Christ crucified, who is Way, Truth and Life. For He who walks in Him
reaches the Light, and is clothed in the shining garment of charity,
wherein are all virtues found. Which charity and love unspeakable, when it
is in the soul, holds itself not content in the common state, but desires
to advance further. Thus from mental poverty it desires to advance to
actual, and from mental continence to actual; to observe the Counsels as
well as the Commandments of Christ; for it begins to feel aversion for the
dunghill of the world. And because it sees the difficulty of being in
filth and not defiled, it longs with breathless desire and burning charity
to free itself by one act from the world so far as possible. If it is not
able to escape in deed, it studies to be perfect in its own place. At
least, it does not lack desire.
Then, dearest brother, let us sleep no more, but awaken from slumber. Open
the eye of the mind in the light of faith, to know, to love, to follow
that truth which you shall know through the Blood of the humble and loving
Lamb. You shall know that Blood in the knowledge of yourself, that the
face of your soul may be washed therein. And it is ours, and none can take
it from us unless we choose. Then be negligent no more; but like a vase,
fill yourself with the Blood of Christ crucified. I say no more. Remain in
the holy and sweet grace of God. Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love.