When the apostle Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians around the year 55 CE, ‘Let the women be silent in the churches’, he inaugurated two millennia of diminishment of women’s presence in Christianity. This is one of many examples of text being taken out of context to silence and oppress an entire group of people. After two millennia of silence in the Catholic Church, there are now four women who are officially part of the magisterium, the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. These four women-Hildegard, Catherine, Teresa and Therese have joined the ranks of about thirty male Doctors of the Church. I’ve been reading about their struggles of being heard as women in leadership, and I’ve also been encouraged by the contributions they made that are finally being recognized, 2000 years later.
Catherine of Siena wrote a book The Dialogue at what many consider one of the worst possible moments in the history of the Church. She was born in 1347, right in the middle of what has been called the ‘calamitous fourteenth century’. The whole church was in turmoil because of a schism. All countries, dioceses, parishes, monasteries and convents were split in two and their members took sides with either Urban or Clement. (For the sake of space and time, I will encourage you to look up that time in church history for more details.)
Due to that schism and split, the there was almost one hundred years before reformation took place. Many reflect that it is a miracle that the Church has survived. Catherine devoted her life to reforming the church. She was a mystic and she integrated mysticism into every aspect of her life. She was on the run actively doing ministry but she maintained direct access to God, not in theory, but an actual experience. She stayed in constant communication with God and acted out of her God given convictions.
Mary T. Malone, author of Four Women Doctors of the Church suggests, “Whereas men seek to shatter their worldly personae and conform their lives to the will of God, and therefore, for the most part, have to retire into solitude away from the world, women, basing themselves on the imago dei (image of God), seek intimacy and even identity with God and then seek to enter the world, to engage in the public exercise of compassion.” In much of the writing about male mysticism, it is described as a precious gift only available to a few; women mystics, on the other hand, always insist that mysticism is for everyone, and offered to everyone without exception.
Catherine speaks constantly about acting manfully to reform the Church, since the men have failed to do so. She also says “the greatest sin we can commit is not to recognize God in ourselves.”
Catherine rarely delayed in asking permission or direction, but rushed ahead to defend God’s honour, as she believed she was being led to do. Even though Catherine was a young uneducated woman, she tried to rouse the Church to the needed reforms.
Catherine received some criticism but it never stopped her from moving forward in the work she felt called into.
Catherine’s life was all about integrating the two parts of the great commandment-love of God and love of neighbor. She integrated solitude and communion, isolation and deeply involved ministry.
Even though Catherine did not live to see the reformation of the Church structures, some claim that Catherine transformed the very heart of the church.
Let’s strive to live our lives like Catherine.
Peace y’all,
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Claire – Wisdom from Catherine of Siena
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https://capitaldistrictnc.org/claire-ificaton/
