"Love Is Had Only by Loving"
Thursday,
April 29, is the feast day of St. Catherine of Sienna (1347-1380), an
incredibly remarkable woman. She was the 23rd of 24 children, and the year
after her birth the plague (“Black Death”) wiped out half the population of
Sienna, Italy. At age six she had a vision of Christ that led her to dedicate
her life to God, and clearly God guided her spiritual growth from then on,
teaching her the first commandment to love God with all her heart, then
teaching her the second commandment of love of neighbor.
St. Catherine left behind numerous writings, and her many letters can be quite direct and full of wisdom. In one such letter she raises the question of how to acquire love. Her answer: “Love is had only by loving. If you want love, you must begin by loving – I mean you must want to love.” Simple enough. Easy? No. She says, “Once you want it, you must open the eye of your understanding to see where and how love is to be found. and you will find it within your very self. How? When you recognize your nothingness. And once you see that of yourself you do not even exist, you will recognize and appreciate that God is the source of your existence and of every favor above and beyond that existence.” And so, “when we see ourselves loved, we love in return.” This recognition of our nothingness outside of God’s grace is a foundational theme Catherine returns to again and again.
Catherine
says that the “soil” and “rock” which held fast the cross of Christ was not the
earth but in reality was us. Neither the cross nor its nails could have held
fast the Son of God “had not love held him fast. So God’s love for our souls
was the rock and the nails that held him fast.” This steadfast love, even in
the face of suffering and trial, is our model. Christ is the rule and the way
in which we are to walk. It is all about love.
In another
letter, Catherine says, “People become like what they love,” and so urges us
not to set our hearts on anything of less value than ourselves; to not to
surrender our God-given dignity. It is thus important to note that while our
nothingness is a recurrent theme, at the same time she places great value on
our dignity. She writes, “Love yourself not selfishly but for God’s sake. Love
other people not for their sake but only for the praise and glory of God’s
name. Love God not for your own sake, for your own profit, but love him for his
sake, because he is the highest Good and is worthy of being loved. Then your
love will be perfect and not mercenary.”
In this letter to a lady in Milan, Catherine writes of
the “perfect charity which ... God has shown and given you before the creation
of the world, since he was in love with you before you even came to be. If he
had not so fallen in love with you he would never have created you. But because
of the love he had for you as he saw you within himself, he was moved to grant
you being. How your thoughts will be stretched when you drink this charity! I
mean you will be thinking about what there is still to drink, eagerly desiring
to taste and possess the supreme eternal beauty of God.”
May our desires be the same.
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is located in California City, CA. Visit our website at ollcalcity.org.
Dibby Allan Green has a BA in Religious Studies (Westmont College, 1978) and MA in Theology (Augustine Institute, 2019), is a lay Catholic hermit, and a parishioner of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish.