"Love Itself Purifies The Soul"
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Thursday, January 13, 2011 1:00 PM
The Holy Father preached yesterday’s audience on the “third Catherine”—Catherine of Genoa.
(She joins St. Catherine of Siena and St. Catherine of Bologna.)
She’s best known for her teaching on Purgatory, but what fascinates me about her is that she was a married woman with an active apostolate who nonetheless attained the very heights of mystical union with God.
Raised in a pious home, she had a troubled marriage to a high-living gambler, and she herself was living a somewhat worldly life when, in the middle of confession, she was suddenly granted such a clear vision of God’s love for her in comparison with her own sins and weaknesses that she nearly fainted.
Without completing her confession, she went home to a quiet place to think over what became the singular experience of her life: the encounter with God’s love which impelled her to deeper union with him and greater service to others.
This service was carried out as a nurse. Catherine directed the largest hospital complex in Genoa. The pope says of her:
From her conversion to her death, there were no extraordinary events; only two elements characterized her whole existence: on one hand, her mystical experience, that is, her profound union with God, lived as a spousal union, and on the other, care of the sick, the organization of the hospital, service to her neighbor, especially the most abandoned and needy. These two poles—God and neighbor—filled her life, which was spent practically within the walls of the hospital.
He draws from her life this conclusion:
we must not forget that the more we love God and are constant in prayer, the more we will truly love those who are around us, those who are close to us, because we will be able to see in every person the face of the Lord, who loves without limits or distinctions. Mysticism does not create distances with others; it does not create an abstract life, but brings one closer to others because one begins to see and act with the eyes, with the heart of God.
Her profound experience of sorrow for sin based on love of God gave her—and us—better insight into Purgatory.
We have heard about the moment of her conversion, when Catherine suddenly felt God’s goodness, the infinite distance of her life from this goodness and a burning fire within her. And this is the fire that purifies, it is the interior fire of purgatory. Here also there is an original feature in relation to the thought of the era. She does not begin, in fact, from the beyond to narrate the torments of purgatory—as was usual at that time and perhaps also today—and then indicate the path for purification or conversion. Instead our saint begins from her own interior experience of her life on the path to eternity. The soul, says Catherine, appears before God still bound to the desires and the sorrow that derive from sin, and this makes it impossible for it to enjoy the Beatific Vision of God. Catherine affirms that God is so pure and holy that the soul with stains of sin cannot be in the presence of the Divine Majesty. And we also realize how far we are, how full we are of so many things, so that we cannot see God. The soul is conscious of the immense love and perfect justice of God and, in consequence, suffers for not having responded correctly and perfectly to that love, and that is why the love itself of God becomes a flame. Love itself purifies it from its dross of sin.
At the end of his catechesis, during his greeting to young people, the sick and newlyweds, the Pope made another interesting remark:
The events of our time bring very much to light the urgent need for Christians to proclaim the Gospel with their life.
And so:
To you, dear young people, I say therefore: Always be faithful to Christ, to be among your contemporaries sowers of hope and joy. You, dear sick, do not be afraid to offer on the altar of Christ the incalculable value of your suffering for the benefit of the Church and of the world. And finally you, dear newlyweds, I hope that you will make of your family a genuine school of Christian life.
Links to the whole series of Audiences on women saints can be found here:
Veronica Guiliani
First eleven saints in the series
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