Meditations on the Mystics | Light and Nourishment in Troubled Times: A Short Reflection on Sacraments and the Church in St. Catherine’s Dialogue
When Kyle Bennett and I decided to found Project: Neighbor, we conceived it as a sorely needed ministry and service to the church and society that homes in on the Christian foundation of neighboring all things to communion. Our ecclesial and social fabrics are fraying, indeed rupturing as neighbor is pitted against neighbor by those serving masters other than the Lord. It is precisely the gospel in service to the triune God who is communal love (1 John 4:8) that can repair this breach (Isaiah 58:12) and stitch our wounds.
The church was founded by Jesus through the Apostles to proclaim the good news of God’s kingdom, to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). These disciples are called to manifest the kingdom in the here and now (Luke 17:21), but always in view of the fullness of God’s kingdom to come (Matthew 24:14), when the Lord returns. Moreover, these disciples are members of Christ’s body, each discerning and exercising their personal gifts for the building up the church in (but not of) the world, incorporated into this mystical body as they sojourn as pilgrims (1 Corinthians 12). They are tasked with being the light and salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13-16), making real a kingdom where love and service are the markers of true strength and authority (Mark 9:35).
This morning, while reading St. Catherine of Siena’s Dialogue, I was struck by the potency of her prose, ever pregnant with meaning that illuminates the work of Project: Neighbor. When reading Catherine, I must continually remind myself of her thoroughly relational perspective. For those of us living in narcissistic and individualistic times, there is a danger in reading the mystics, for we easily overlook the centrality not of the individual, but of God who is closer to us than we are to ourselves. God indeed has to do with us and our experience, but we must attend to and orient our bodies and minds for the worship and glory of the Lord.
Moreover, God has ordained that his followers be baptized into the church that preserves the faith, proclaims the gospel, and provides the sacraments. Indications of this are abundant. When Catherine is treating the life of the soul and virtue, she does so always in consideration of love of God and neighbor, for “every evil as well as every good is done by means of your neighbors” (no. 24). Furthermore, she continually laments the corruption and sin of her times and within the church, praying for greater adherence to the Way, the Truth, and the Life (no. 27; see John 14:6), and partaking of the sacraments that sustain us.
In a thought-provoking passage, Catherine pithily draws the above strands together in a way that cultivates an image of the church as accompanying all sojourners. This particular chapter of the Dialogue is called, “The Bridge,” of course referring to Christ who brings humanity and divinity together in the Incarnation (John 1:1-14). In this dialogue, after stating that Christ’s blood is the key by which heaven is opened for us, the character of the Lord states, “And the hostelry of holy Church is there to serve the bread of life and the blood, lest the journeying pilgrims, my creatures, grow weary and faint on the way. So has my love ordained that the blood and body of my only-begotten Son, wholly God and wholly human, be administered” (no. 27). On display here is the hospitality of the church, which ministers to the pilgrims and sustains their journeys to communion and life with the Lord, made possible by Christ’s Incarnation and sacrifice on the cross.
Catherine continues, “If you follow this truth you will have the life of grace and never die of hunger, for the Word has himself become your food. Nor will you ever fall into darkness, for he is the light undimmed by falsehood” (no. 27). Speaking of the deception of Adam and Eve, she writes, “That lie broke up the road to heaven, but Truth repaired it and walled it up with his blood” (no. 27). This vivid imagery helps us to envision the way the Lord works for our salvation amid our travels and travails. The sacraments administered by the church have been instituted by the Lord to sustain our journeying, especially in such uncertain times when we easily grow weary and risk falling. God indeed has ordained things so that we might traverse the bridge of Christ, adhering to the Way, the Truth, and the Life that continually illumines our path. We can therefore discern the way and have been given the nourishment to take it.
Catherine’s language undermines any conception of church as static or formalistic. Rather, one senses a collective journeying of the Body of Christ, wherein Christian pilgrims are accompanied by God through the church and the sacraments. By truly receiving the Lord and following Him, we not only can reach our destination, but also manifest the kingdom along the way, grounded in deep humility, charitable love, and abiding virtue. Thus it is that the repairs made by God through Christ and in the Spirit, which open the gate to heaven, might also animate our very lives, healing our breaches with God, our neighbors, and all of creation.
