"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd." ~Flannery O'Connor

Saturday, October 21, 2006

“Even the hairs of your head are counted”

From St. Catherine of Siena's commentary on today's Gospel (Luke 12: 1-7):

God told me: “No one can escape from my hands. For I am who am (Ex 3:14), and you, you are not of yourselves; you are only insofar as you have been made by me. I am the creator of all things that have a part in being, but not of sin, which is not, and which was thus not made by me. And because it is not in me, it is not worthy of being loved. A creature only offends me because it loves what it must not love, sin… It is impossible for human beings to go outside of me; they either abide in me through the force of justice, which punishes their faults, or else they abide in me, protected by my mercy. So open the eye of your intelligence and look at my hand; you will see that I am telling you the truth.”

Then, opening the eye of the spirit so as to obey the Father who is so great, I saw the whole universe enclosed in that divine hand. And God told me: “My daughter, see now and know that nothing can escape me. Everyone here is held by justice or by mercy, because they are mine, created by me, and I love them infinitely. No matter how wicked they might be, I will have mercy on them because of my servants; I will hear the request that you brought before me with so much love and suffering”…

Then my soul, as if drunk and outside of itself in the ever greater ardor of its desire, felt at one and the same time blessed and in pain. Blessed through the union it had had with God, tasting his joy and his goodness, wholly plunged into his mercy. In pain because of seeing the offense done to such great goodness.

Dialogue 18
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