Daily Archives: April 29, 2026

St. Catherine of Siena

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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

In my Father’s house

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This coming Sunday is the 5th Sunday of Easter in Lectionary Cycle A. In yesterday’s post we considered the opening words of the gospel: “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (14:1). Today we consider the meaning of  memorable and well known verses:  2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be

Verse 2 also has some translation options: “In my Father’s house [oikia] there are many dwelling places [monai].”  Should oikia be translated “house,” i.e., a physical structure (as in 11:31 & 12:3);”household,” i.e., a community of people (as in 4:53 & 8:35)?; or even “family” – all of which are valid translations [EDNT 2:495].  Often people immediately think of the King James’ translation: “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.” – which immediately moves one’s thoughts and reference to heaven.  Is this the intention of this passage?

If one is convinced that house [oikia] refers to heaven alone (v.2) then the prepare a place (v.2) and the where I am (v.3) refer to a place in heaven where Jesus is. The I will come back speaks to the parousia – although that is not a topic this Gospel speaks about elsewhere. But clearly oikia has other meanings: household, community, family. If one lends credence to those understandings, then the reference can be heaven and earthly life.

Some of this should sound familiar to those who would study the Gospel According to John. The encounter with Nicodemus (ch. 3) and the Samaritan Woman at the well (ch. 4) hinge of the ambiguity of words. And there is more. The same ambiguity exists with mone (singular). It means a “place where one may remain or dwell,” It can mean a physical structure – and often in secular use it refers to a transient or overnight lodging [TDNT 4:574] – rather than the fixed “mansions” of the KJ translation.

Then again, all the focus on the “where” might be a diversion from the more important element. Many argue that here in v.2 the context (because of v.3) lends itself to a permanent dwelling – but is it physical?  The only other NT use of mone is John 14:23, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling [mone]with him.”  The use there seems to imply an abiding relationship between people and God – and one in which the Father and the Son come to the human person!

This noun is related to the verb menō meaning “to remain, stay, await” [EDNT 2:407]. The verb occurs often in the Farewell Discourse (14:10, 17, 25; 15:4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 16) most often referring to the relationship between God and Jesus or God and us. Another reference with this meaning of menō is 8:35 (where oikia also occurs): “ A slave does not remain in a household forever, but a son always remains.”  Do the words “remain” and “house” refer to a physical place or to a relational state? Our children remain our children forever, even though they may not be living in our house. The relationship remains even while the physical presence may not.

Fr. Raymond Brown (627) writes:

This special house or household where the son has a permanent dwelling place suggests a union with the Father reserved for Jesus the Son and for all those who are begotten as God’s children by the Spirit that Jesus gives. Thus there would be some precedent for reinterpreting “many dwelling places in my Father’s house” parabolically as possibilities for permanent union (mone/meno) with the Father in and through Jesus.

Why mention all this? Jewish traditions that identify the ‘Father’s house’ with a heavenly dwelling place clearly lie behind the imagery of v. 2a (e.g., Pss 2:4; 66:1; 113:5-6; 123:1; Is 66:1), but it is critical to the interpretation of Jesus’ words in this gospel that “my Father’s house” not be taken as a synonym for heaven. This needs to be read first in the context of the mutual indwelling of God and Jesus, a form of  indwelling that has been repeatedly stressed from the opening verses of the Gospel (e.g., 1:1, 18).  And that indwelling is the critical relationship for the disciples in the post-Resurrection era.

Image credit: Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255–1319), “Jesus taking leave of his Apostles,” ca. 1310 | Panel 4 of the Maestro, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena | Public Domain