Catherine of Siena

I hardly know what to make of Catherine of Siena’s (1347-1380) mysticism. While walking with her brother at age six, she had an ecstatic vision of Christ seated in glory. At seven, she devoted her life to Christ and resolved to live a celibate life. She refused her parents’ repeated overtures to marry her deceased sister’s widower as a teenager and cut off her long hair in protest. At 21, she claimed to be united to Christ in a mystical marriage and received a ring from Jesus that was invisible to others, but she could see for the rest of her life. Before we dismiss her as extreme and perhaps delusional (she was, after all, a dynamic reformer in the medieval church and an astute political advisor), consider how she described God’s love in her writing, The Dialogue of Divine Providence. God is not a cosmic bookkeeper keeping track of our moral failings; God is madly in love with us. “You cannot live without love because I made you for love,” God told Catherine in the Dialogue. Since God’s love isn’t contingent on human performance, we can do nothing to permanently separate us from God’s love. God will go to any lengths (consider the cross) and take any risks (think of the perils associated with coming to earth as a helpless infant) to draw us back into union with God. I was confused when I first came across Catherine’s prayer about God as a mad lover since I commonly associate mad with fickle and capricious. But mad to her meant relentless and persistent. G.K. Chesterton likened it to the “furious love of God.” God loves us furiously. The Creator is madly in love with creatures like us. Let’s not obsess over the ways we have sinned against God. Rest in the assurance of God’s love. If this is mysticism, I’ll take it!