Chapter XIV: Catherine in Politics

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Catherine of Siena by Sigrid Undset
Chapter XIV

This was a very long chapter detailing many great political feats of Catherine (turning away an army with a letter - all the more impressive as it was a mercenary army, convincing cities to hold to Papal Authority, changing minds and winning souls and besting each new adversary, correcting the Pope in her letters).  The two details that captured my imagination, however, were smaller.

The first Undset herself bemoans the fact that we know little about.  Mona Lapa at some point joined the Sisters of Penitence and became part of Catherine's followers when the saint travelled to Pisa.  Undset lists reasons of worldly love that she imagines driving Lapa to this change in her life, and I cannot help but imagining the bittersweet pang it must have given mother and daughter to have a daily iteration of Christ turning away his mother and brothers to attend to the crowds.  We don't know much, but the imagination runs wild.

The second was a piece of the advice we receive in this chapter: two things are required - courage and longing for the salvation of the souls of others.

How perfect, really.  She goes on to say that we cannot have this longing in our own barren trees unless we graft ourselves to God.  Only through our love for God do we get this holy love of our fellow men's souls.  From there, we need only the courage to act on it.

Somewhat unfairly, considering I do not like aggressive evangelization, I have always felt that, if you believe as many denominations do that the only way to Christ is conversion along the lines of the salvation prayer, the only moral position is aggressive evangelization - doing whatever it takes.  I cannot fathom holding that believe and not shouting all the time for people to turn to God.  I went through a period in my teenage years that...well, part of my dislike of aggressive evangelization is a certain amount of self-scorn about my own behavior however well meant.

But it is a hard thing that requires great courage.  It is a separate thing you need - to actively crusade for the salvation of other souls.  It requires deeper courage for not being acknowledged as the same kind of heroism that yield earthly rewards and often yield resentments and anger and accusations of hypocrisy.  I wonder if it is the rarer virtue.

Another thing I want to note in this blog post is the discussion of the way the Tuscan language Catherine spoke conceived of virtue as an active, living, vibrant connection to life rather than a cold aestheticism we think of today and the way that sweetness also implied strength.

We could use a taste of that awareness today - the strength it takes to greet the world with a sweetness it often scorns for the love of others' souls and a hunger for their salvation.