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Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, "St. Catherine of Siena," ca. 1746, painting, at https://www.wikiart.org
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St. Catherine, a mystic and doctor of the Church, lived during the Avignon papacy when much corruption
existed among the ministers of the Church. On account of her wisdom, she was
called to assist the Holy Father in returning to Rome, and she saw much
corruption in the process of fulfilling this calling. Her concern over the
state of the Church is revealed within The
Dialogue. This work is
structured as a prayerful dialogue with the Father. In
places, the Father directs hard words against ministers of the Church.¹ However,
these words are also surrounded by admonishes to give proper respect to His
ministers. A fuller understanding of the insight of this work needs to consider
the work as a whole, with special focus on the content of the beginning of the
dialogue.
Catherine
begins by communicating a desire for the honor of God and the salvation of souls, a desire which grows when she is provided fuller
recognition of the extent of corruption within the Church.² However, as she prays to the Father for herself and others, she grows in a self
knowledge and begins to recognize how united the Church is, "with a great
knowledge of herself, being ashamed of her own imperfection, appearing to
herself to be the cause of all the evil that was happening throughout the
world."³ She recognized that in her own sins, she was to blame. Having not
assisted with prayers and harming through sin, she had performed an injustice
to her neighbor and had a part in the corruption of the Church.
In this
consideration, the Father directs the conversation further as He seeks to
assist her soul in development. He explains that through Christ alone can full
propitiation for sin be made. She is not, therefore, to trust in her own finite
suffering, for it is not the act itself which supplies the effects. Rather,
through the love by which she does the acts, she attains remission of the sin
and its effects through Christ’s sacrifice; it is not the finite pain, but the
infinite contrition which the Father accepts as united to Christ’s sacrifice.
However, the soul should desire, out of love, to suffer. This charity by which
she seeks to serve Him, of necessity, must include the virtue of humility by
which love is fostered; a proper humility recognizes one's own true nature and
that of the infinite God through whom that nature was received and without whom
it could not exist. As the soul grows in this true charity, she grows in a
desire to suffer in love of God. The greater the measure of love with which she
does these acts, the more the act will please God. This love is further
strengthened and developed through practice of acts of love and loving
perseverance in times of trial. However, the love developing must not be for
the suffering itself, but for the developing of virtue.⁴
With this focus, discretion must discern
the manner and extent of penance which is possible. However, the Father
stresses, one cannot judge merit on the extent of penance, for merit does not
consist in the penance itself. Rather, merit consists solely in the measure of
the virtue of love, properly ordered by discretion, through which the act is
performed. Through these virtues we ensure to perform our duties to God
and neighbor and properly attributes to God the good developed from virtue. Developing these virtues with humility, the soul guards her
development from the snares of sin.⁵
It is with this context that the Father first brings in a lament
on the state of the Church with special mention of His ministers. The members
of the Church are become filthy in self-love, pride, and avarice; the
ministers, granted the privilege to administer the holy sacraments, are not
excepted from these sins and administer that which is sacred, in ignorance and
ingratitude, with "filthy hands." The Father proceeds to explain that
where more is given, the greater will be the punishment. However, He promises
that His faithful servants' hunger for souls will accomplish much for their
salvation if the faithful will endure much in love. However, in the suffering,
He promises great blessing through Christ.⁶
The Father
expounds this promise; He presents Jesus as the bridge over the tempestuous
waters which rose by Adam's sin. There are three steps of the bridge,
symbolizing three stages of the soul. At
Christ's feet, the first step of the bridge, the soul removes herself
from earthly affection; seeking to purify herself of vice, she gazes into Christ's heart and recognizes His great
love for her. Recognizing His selfless love, the soul climbs to
the second step, uniting her heart with His, developing in love and virtue. The
soul then proceeds to the third step, the mouth of Christ, where she attains
peace and is no longer buffeted by the torrential waters. This bridge may be
hard to travel, but, unlike travel in the waters under the bridge, traveling
the bridge of virtue causes burdens to become light. The bridge's union between Heaven and earth is
created through the Holy Spirit's direction of the development of Church
doctrine. Through traveling this bridge, man once again can attain the
blessings of eternal life.⁷
After this
explanatory metaphor, the Father and the soul converse about the suffering of
sin and the blessings received through virtue. There are many graces received
by virtue, and those who seek pleasure in sin are to be both pitied and loved. However,
the Father does at times remove spiritual consolations from the soul pursuing virtue,
that the soul may grow in self knowledge and in recognition of dependence on Him
and thus attain greater perfection. The soul must not, therefore, seek to serve
God only for the sake of spiritual consolation, but must persevere even when
the consolation be temporarily removed. To persevere, the soul must humbly turn
to Heaven’s assistance through prayer and reception of the Sacraments. Through this
means the soul can seek God’s grace to grow in perfection through death to her
own will and desiring only the will of the Father. It is from this context of
the personal responsibility of the soul to grow in virtue and sacrificial charity
through vigilance and prayer that the Father proceeds to acknowledge the soul’s
concern about corruption in the Church and the world.⁸
The Father first speaks on the dignity of the priests who administer the
sacraments, stating that they deserve respect on account of His choice to use
them to provide the sacred sacraments to the faithful, even if they dishonor
their calling. He acknowledges the soul’s recognition of the sin of many
ministers but explains that recognition of the dignity of the Sacraments should
inspire the soul to better recognize the dignity of the minister and grieve for
those who administer the sacraments in sin.⁹
It is in this context that He speaks
harshly of His ministers, stating that they “wallow in the mire of filth, or …
inflated by pride, seek… great prelacies.”¹⁰ As such, He has already presented
the soul with her own sinfulness and her obligation to charity. He has further
assisted her in recognition of the blessings of virtue and the pitiful state of
those in sin and calls her to fuller perfection. He further presents to her the
innate dignity of the priesthood and the respect due to the priests.
Therefore, the Father’s statements become
an acknowledgement of the objective immorality of the ministers. The soul,
speaking to Him in prayer, is distressed about this immorality, and the Father
is inflaming in her heart charitable pity for these souls and a desire for their
conversion which becomes all the more intense on account of their dignified
calling. The Father is not disgracing the minister or treating them with
improper dignity; He called them to the dignity of their office and it is they
who dishonored this sacred calling. Rather, He is calling the soul to union
with Him through charity and to a recognition of the dignity of the priesthood
and her obligation to pray for priests: “You should love them … by reason of
the virtue and dignity of the Sacrament, and by reason of that very virtue and
dignity you should hate the defects of those who live miserably in sin, but not
on that account appoint yourselves their judges, which I forbid, because they
are My Christs.”¹¹ The Father calls the soul to recognize and hate the defects,
but forbids the soul to judge His “Christs,” even as she recognizes their sin. Rather,
recognition of these defects, along with personal humility, should encourage a charitable zeal for their
conversion, enhanced through recognition of their dignified office. The Father,
encouraging her to self-knowledge from the beginning of the dialogue, encourages
her in this also to see things as they truly are and to recognize her
obligation to charity.
The
Dialogues is a work of deep insight from the communication of a saint and
mystic with God. It inspires self-recognition and a recognition of one’s duty
to God and neighbor. This timeless work aids one in identifying and embracing
fully one’s duty to God and neighbor, motivated by appreciation of God’s love
and awareness of the pitiful state of sin.
¹ Robert Kiely,
“The saint who lost her head: or who's afraid of Catherine of Siena?” Religion and the Arts 8 no. 3 (2004) 304-305.
² Catherine of Siena, Dialogue of Catherine of Siena, (Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library) 17, at www.ccel.org.
³ Catherine of Siena, Dialogue of Catherine of Siena, 18.
⁴ Catherine of Siena, Dialogue of Catherine of Siena, 19-36.
⁵ Catherine of Siena, Dialogue of Catherine of Siena, 31-36.
⁶ Catherine of Siena, Dialogue of Catherine of Siena, 39-43.
⁷ Catherine of Siena, Dialogue of Catherine of Siena, 44-54
⁸ Catherine of Siena, Dialogue of Catherine of Siena, 55-133.
⁹ Catherine of Siena, Dialogue of Catherine of Siena, 137-144.
¹⁰ Catherine of Siena, Dialogue of Catherine of Siena, 144.
¹¹ Catherine of Siena, Dialogue of Catherine of Siena, 151.
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