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Reflection on spiritual motherhood
in St Catherine of Siena's letters to priests
— Year for Priests
At the foot of the cross, in the heart of
the redemption, Our Lord Jesus Christ instituted a "new motherhood of
Mary",1 as he entrusted his mother to his beloved disciple
and his beloved disciple to his mother. From this entrustment flows Our
Lady's spiritual motherhood of each member of Christ's body, the Church,
and especially her motherhood of his priests. Her maternal care for each
priest was brought to our attention in a particular way by the
Congregation for the Clergy's teaching that, in union with Mary, all
women are invited to live out their vocation to spiritual motherhood by
offering their prayers and sacrifices for the salvation of souls and the
holiness of Christ's priests.2
In his 1988 Apostolic Letter, Mulieris Dignitatem,
Pope John Paul II speaks of motherhood and virginity as two
important and related dimensions of a woman's vocation.3 He
describes how the vocation to motherhood is inscribed in the very being
of a woman: she is not only physically but also psychologically endowed
with the capacity to create a space within herself for another human
being.4 John Paul speaks of this as a special "entrustment"
that God has made to woman;5 she has the beautiful privilege
of bringing forth new life into the world by the generous use of her
feminine gifts.
Even those called to a life of consecrated virginity are
not excluded from this vocation to motherhood. For them, John Paul II
says, there is the possibility of "a different kind of motherhood: a
motherhood 'according to the Spirit'".6 In the life of
consecrated women, this motherhood "can express itself as concern for
people, especially the most needy".7 John Paul is careful to
point out that this concern for others on the part of consecrated women
is motivated by spousal love for Christ. Just as natural motherhood is
the fruit of the spousal love in marriage between husband and wife,
spiritual motherhood is the fruit of the spousal love in religious life
between the consecrated virgin and Christ.
What may come as a surprise to some is John Paul's
insistence that spiritual motherhood is not limited to unmarried women:
"And does not physical motherhood also have to be a spiritual
motherhood, in order to respond to the whole truth about the human being
who is a unity of body and spirit"?8 John Paul II evidently
sees it as an important dimension of every woman's vocation.
The doctor of the Church
who most clearly articulates this vocation to spiritual motherhood is
the 14th century Dominican tertiary St Catherine of Siena, who is
perhaps best known for the prayers, sacrifices, and counsel she offered
Pope Gregory XI in his decision to return the papacy from Avignon to
Rome. In looking to her as a model of spiritual motherhood for priests,
we discover that Catherine teaches not only by the example of her
prayers and sacrifices, but also by the counsel she offers in her
letters: "See that in everything you turn to Mary as you embrace the
cross",9 "Make your home in the pulpit of the cross",10
and "Finish your life on the cross",11 encouraging her
spiritual sons to identify themselves ever more closely with Christ the
High Priest. Catherine's spiritual motherhood, as seen in these letters,
offers us a rich source of inspiration as we enter into this "Year for
Priests".
Catherine's letters to
priests often include words of encouragement in times of difficulty, as
she writes to Blessed Raymond of Capua, referring to herself in the
third person: "I've heard from a servant of God who constantly holds you
before God in prayer, that you have been experiencing tremendous
struggles and that your spirit has been overtaken by darkness because of
the devil's illusions and deceits".12 With this image of
holding a soul before God in prayer, as a mother holding her child out
so that its Father might take it up into his arms, Catherine reveals the
maternal quality of her prayer. With a mother's intuition illumined by
the Holy Spirit, she perceives the spiritual darkness he has fallen into
and explains the enemy's tactics: "He wants to make you see the crooked
as straight and the straight as crooked, and he does this to make you
stumble along the way so you won't reach your goal".13 In the
face of such diabolical attempts to impede his priestly ministry,
Catherine assures Raymond, "But take heart. God has provided and will
continue to provide for you, and his providence will not fail you".14
A priest's confidence is to be placed, not in himself,
where it is sure to fail, but in God's providential care for him,
especially in the form of his mother. As Our Lady's maternal love for
her son embraced him from the moment of his Incarnation to his death on
the cross, so, too, does her maternal love embrace his priests in her
constant intercession for them. Thus, they can entrust their priestly
hearts wholly to hers, especially in times of discouragement, as
Catherine advises, "See that in everything you turn to Mary as you
embrace the cross".15
But it is not enough to
embrace the cross — it must be mounted, as Catherine explains in her
letter to Frate Bartolomeo Dominici: "After the fire of the Holy Spirit
had descended on [the disciples], they mounted the pulpit of the blazing
cross, where they felt and tasted the hunger of God's Son,
his love for humankind".16 With this striking image,
Catherine expresses the complete identification of Christ
and his priests on the cross, blazing with the fire of divine
charity, where they feel what he felt and taste what
he tasted in his all-consuming love for us. Only from such a pulpit of
divine charity do the words of priests
wield supernatural power:
"Then their words came
forth as does a red-hot knife from a furnace, and with
its heat they pierced their listeners to the heart and
cast out the devils".17 Indeed,many of Catherine's own
listeners were pierced to the heart, not only by her
words, but also by those of the priests to whom she
sent them in the pulpit of the confessional. Whether he is casting out
devils in the confessional or at the altar,
the pulpit of the cross is where the priest of Christ
belongs, as Catherine implores, "So, my dearest son, I beg you — it
is my will in Christ Jesus — make your home in the
pulpit of the cross".18
From this pulpit, a
priest of Jesus Christ engages in
a battle for souls, beginning with his own, which is why in her letter to Frate Ranieri Catherine urges, "I long to see you a real knight, fighting against every vice and temptation for Christ crucified with a
true holy perseverance".19
With such chivalric imagery, she appeals to his masculine instincts for
battle and adventure, as she continues, "For it is perseverance that is
crowned. You know that victory is achieved by fighting and perseverance.
In this life we are set as on a battlefield and we must fight
courageously, not dodging the blows or retreating, but keeping our eyes
on our captain, Christ crucified, who always persevered".20
Just as no soldier goes
into battle at his own initiative, but solely at that of his captain, so
too must a priest take his commands from Christ, who "didn't give up
when the Jews said, `Come down from the cross!' Nor did the devil or our
ingratitude make him give up fulfilling the Father's command and our
salvation. No, he persevered right up to the end, when he returned to
the eternal Father with the victory he had achieved, the victory of
having rescued humankind from darkness and given us the light of grace
once again by conquering the devil and the world with all its pleasures. And it killed him: this
Lamb took death for himself in order to give us life; by his dying he
destroyed our death".21
Finally, as no soldier dies
for an abstraction he holds, but for a beauty he loves, so too must
Christ's priests live and die for love of the beauty of his bride, the
Church. Hence, Catherine concludes her letter to this priest simply
with, "Finish your life on the cross".22
In these letters to Blessed
Raymond of Capua and other priests, the voice of St Catherine of Siena
as a spiritual mother is unmistakable. The authority with which she
speaks is that of one whose spousal love for Christ united her so
closely to him that his desire for the salvation of souls and the
holiness of his priests has become her very own. As Catherine joins
"that gentle mother Mary"23 in interceding for Christ's priests, she invites
us to do the same. In light of the Congregation for the Clergy's
document calling for spiritual mothers for priests and Pope Benedict XVI's dedication of the current year as a "Year for Priests", a
rediscovery of this spiritual mother's letters to priests could not be
more timely.
Notes
1 John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Mater,
n. 23.
2 Cf. 2007 document
Adoration, Reparation, Spiritual
Motherhood for Priests.
3
John Paul II, Apostolic
Letter Mulieris Dignitatem, n. 17.
4 Ibid., n. 18.
5 Ibid., n. 30.
6 Ibid., n. 21.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 The Letters of Catherine
of Siena, vol. II, trans.
Suzanne Noffke (Tempe, AZ: Medieval & Renaissance Studies, 2001), 473,
T267.
10 Ibid., 84, T198.
11 Ibid., 112,
TI59.
12 Ibid., 473, T267.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid., 84, Ti98.
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid., 108, TI59.
20 Ibid. Ibid.
21 Ibid., 112.
22 Ibid., 5, T226
23 Ibid., 5, T226.
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