Today is the Feast Day of St. Catherine of Siena, along with St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of Italy! As a feast day, there are readings specific to the occasion, taken from the First Letter of St. John and the Gospel of Matthew – and these are well chosen for the occasion.

Catherine of Siena was an Italian mystic and pious laywoman who engaged in papal and Italian politics through extensive letter-writing and advocacy. During life the Church was impacted by Roman/Italian politics that caused the Pope to move the papacy and its offices to Avignon, France. In the period 1309 to 1376 seven successive popes resided in Avignon. You can read more about the Avignon Papacy here. Catherine mounted a letter-campaign among her peers to convince Pope Gregory XI to return the papacy to Rome. He was the last of the Avignon popes. However, also part of this milieu of temporal and religious authority was the Western Schism, a time when there were multiple claimants to the Chair of Peter (1378 to 1417). The reigning pope, Urban VI, enlisted Catherine’s help to find a resolution to the schism in order that the Church be One.

St. Catherine lived in a time when there were many secular voices and motivations that seemed to be drowning out the voice of the True Shepherd. A problem not unfamiliar with each person living in our times. There are voices that offer up a “schism” between life and individual choice, between natural law and personal desires, and would point our moral compass in new directions. The voice of the True Shepherd calling us to the light and other voices calling us to a different path. The question that Catherine asked is the same as asked of us in today’s first reading – are we truly in fellowship with Jesus, doing as he commanded: “If we say, ‘We have fellowship with him,’ while we continue to walk in darkness, we lie and do not act in truth…If we say, ‘We are without sin,’ we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:6,8).

It is a question pertinent to our secular and faith lives, just as it was for the leaders of Catherine’s time. But is it a question we ask of ourselves? From time to time, during the Sacrament of Confession, I hear a penitent say “….well, I really don’t have any sins to confess, I am a pretty good person.” I may be in the presence of a Saint (the capital “S” kind) or maybe (more likely) I am with someone who could use a second look at their lives. Not a second look that is rooted in fear and scrupulosity, but one that ever seeks to find the truth, be in fellowship, and minimize the degree to which human nature participates in self-deception.

We might be blessed with a “St. Catherine” in our lives who will be unafraid to engage us and point us to the light, but in all cases we are called to learn from Jesus revealed in the Holy Word of Scripture and to reflect on our lives to see what burdens we can lay down, and what next steps we are called to take on the road towards holiness.

Image credit: St. Catherine of Siena, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo  | Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Gemäldegalerie | PD-US