The gift of my neighbour is really the greatest gift of all…
Saint Catherine of Sienna lived in the fourteenth century and died at the age of thirty-three, after having lived a life of suffering and abstinence.
Saint Catherine is Sienna is considered one of the greatest saints to have ever lived and has been seen in visions recorded by other Saints sitting on a throne at the right hand of God.
Pope Paul VI, in 1970, declared Saint Catherine of Sienna a Doctor of the Church for her writings. Interestingly though, Saint Catherine of Sienna was completely illiterate, but her words were written down and recorded for her following her visions and ecstasies by those who were literate around her. Pope Paul VI said that Saint Catherine’s work in bringing the papacy back to Rome from Avignon (where the second Pope had established his court) was “the masterpiece of her work.”
And I have been reflecting upon some of the many writings of this Great Saint…
Saint Catherine wrote in “The Dialogues”… “Tell me Lord, who am I, what am I? Lord, tell me also, who and what art Thou?” And the Lord answered her saying, “Daughter, thou art she who is not. I am He who is.”
And I have been reflecting on that… For my Beloved is the CREATOR and I am merely the creation. Why HE IS, I am not, because without HIM I am nothing – not even a creation in existence…
And – along the same vein – God told Saint Catherine of Sienna, “I ask you to love Me with same love with which I love you. But for me you cannot do this, for I love you without being loved. Whatever love you have for Me you owe Me, so you love Me not gratuitously but out of duty, while I love you not out of duty but gratuitously. So you cannot give Me the kind of love I ask of you. This is why I have put you among your neighbours: so that you can do for them what you cannot do for Me – that is, love them without any concern for thanks and without looking for any profit for yourself. And whatever you do for them I will consider done for Me.”
And I have been reflecting on the beauty of such a gift as that. For God gave me my neighbours so that I could love them, because I have no way of loving Him without duty. And in this way, I am afforded the opportunity – through all their errors and mistakes and through all the grievances that they cause me – to love my Lord and God GRATUITOUSLY and not out of duty when I love my neighbour…
And in understanding that, I can understand the words of this wonderful saint when she said that “Ungrateful people are not patient.”
For it is now with great gratitude that I can see in my neighbours all their flaws – for their flaws are my opportunity to practice patience. And only with patience could I ever be grateful for the gift of my neighbour… For it occurs to me today that the gift of my neighbour is really the greatest gift of all…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.