Chapter XVI: Catherine in Avignon

Monday, December 17, 2012

Catherine of Siena by Sigrid Undset
Chapter XVI

This is the story of the great work of Catherine's life - in a matter of weeks, convincing Gregory XI to return the papacy to Rome.  She helped bulwark him against all the pressures and familial ties keeping him in Avignon, reminded him of a promise he had made that he never told a living soul, and convinced him that she spoke on behalf of God.  She even convinced him to leave suddenly to help with his indecisive nature and gave him the strength to march straight past his father kneeling at the gates as he walked by.

There is much here (although less detail than I had hoped from Undset), but what really strikes me is this compelling reason for Pope Gregory XI lingering in Avignon: his family.  Undset has often mentioned the trouble his nepotism caused.  But I can feel for the fact that Gregory's home was France, and his family seems to have been very present in his life and presumably loving if he relies on and clings to them.

This is the kind of thing that makes what Jesus said about denying thy father and thy mother seem not so out of step.  This is the kind of thing that can get in the way of the best of men.  Because not only is this an undeniable call of our hearts, but who knows us better than our family?  Who will be a more passionate advocate to keep us with them even when we must be elsewhere?  Who do we trust more implicitly than the ones who raised us or were raised beside us?  Who knows how we think, what we want?

Who is more able to save or to lead us astray?  Whose arguments will feel more compelling than our family's?  With everything that nature, nurture, and history can bring to bear, they can compel us against our better judgments.  They do so constantly.  Usually to much less damaging effect than Gregory's.

What we need in such times is someone such as Catherine - a pure soul, a spiritual guide, a dramatic and compelling reminder of God's grace and His justice.  A pure soul who led a pure life, in strict accordance with the rules of God.  Someone to remind us of the spiritual joys and the spiritual toil that is part of our mantel as Christians.

If nothing else, someone else to understand that it is hard to leave our family.  Someone who understands, moreover, that it kills you slowly to pretend you do not know what you must do, that you must leave them.  Someone who understand the power of the call and how it can consume you - someone who will not talk you out of it but verify it, assure you it comes from God - not from within yourself or from any demons.

I think this is part of the work that Catherine did in Avignon - just be another person who has followed God's call at the cost of her family in many ways.  Catherine, like all of us, are sometimes called to convince and plead with our entire lives - not just the words we say.