#loveistheonlyrule

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[sowingseedsandshootinghoops]

St Catherine of Siena: It’s All About Love

Note on the text: The tradition is that Catherine simply wrote down what God told her, hence the title of the work. I have decided to keep within the framework of that tradition, and that is what I’m referring to when I say things like “God tells Catherine....” 

Saint Catherine of Siena is an Italian saint from the 14th century and in her masterwork The Dialogue she writes about how in the end it is all about love: how much God loves us, how much we love each other, and how much we love him. 

God himself tells Catherine that every human being was made to love one another and that the more a soul loves God the more it will love its fellow humans and visa versa. The reason that God did not make us complete as individuals was so that we might be “forced” to reach out in love and help each other. That is why God has “distributed all [the virtues] in such a way that no one has all of them” (38). He even goes so far as to say that the only real way that we can love God is by loving each other; that we serve him by serving each other in love and that we show our hatred for him by hating each other. We must all act in loving ways towards each other, our actions speak louder than our words ever could. So it’s not enough to simply say that we love God or love each other, we have to act on that love, and, like I said above, he says that the way we show our love for him is by loving each other. 

Sometimes Christians can get hung up on the technicalities of what it means to be Christian. They say that if you haven’t been baptized or haven’t gone to Communion that you aren’t a true Christian for example, regardless of what is in your heart. But what God tells Catherine is that he wants our hearts more than anything else. If we give him that, then there is nothing else that he wants from us. He gives her the example of people who converted but were martyred before they could be baptized: “Though they could not have [baptism], their own blood has power because of mine. [They] are baptized in fire when they lovingly desire baptism but cannot have it” (138). He then goes on to say that for people who “cannot confess, heartfelt contrition is enough for the hand of my mercy to give them [the power] of [my] precious blood” and concludes by assuring her that “it is true that, if at the moment of their death a person wanted to confess but could not, that [that] person would still receive [the] fruit [of my precious blood]” (139). All this is to say that God’s salvific power is not limited by the sacrament of baptism or another sacrament or act. He can give it to whomever he wants, whenever he wants to although he has guaranteed that the power of baptism is actually real. The point is that the way you access that power is through love. If you love God, and in turn love your neighbor, then he will extend this blessing to you, baptism or no baptism. There is no circumstance under which he could not extend his mercy towards you, so long as you approach him in love. In fact he tells Catherine that, “this is the sin for which there is no forgiveness, not now [nor] ever: the scorning or refusal of my mercy” (79). 

Now this doesn’t mean that one should take God’s mercy for granted by doing something like rejecting him publicly with the expectation that he will forgive you willy-nilly when all is said and done. You should always strive to love the Lord and not abuse his kindness, but know that whenever you come to him with love that he will always accept you no matter what. No matter what you’ve done, if you approach the Lord with love he will forgive you. He will always meet you at every step of the way and is always contriving to find ways to get you to love him. After all, as the John the Apostle says in his first letter, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Again, God is reminding us here that love is the only rule.