Apr 29 Wed
Why should I love the Church?
Today is the feast of Saint Catherine of Sienna; her life was an outpouring of love and service for the Roman Pontiff. She loved the Church of God and the Roman Pontiff truly and with deeds.
The Church is holy in herself, and holy also in her life, of which all-too-evident tokens are being provided continually by the Spirit of God, because Jesus Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that He might sanctify her... that He might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.
The Church is holy in her origin: Christ is her holy Founder and head.
The Church is also holy in her internal principle of life: the Holy Spirit.
Her aim is holy—namely, God’s glory and man’s sanctification.
The means that she uses are holy: Christ’s teaching, his moral precepts and counsels, the forms of worship, the sacraments, and the gifts of grace.
The Church is holy in many of her members, as there have always been, and will always be, saints whose holiness has been proven and proclaimed by the Church.
Our love for the Church and the Roman Pontiff has to be shown in the reality of our prayer, in the joy of our obedience, in the vibrancy of our concrete acts of service. St. Josemaría: “This is the way followed by the Pope, the sweet Christ on earth, the Vice-God, as I like to call him, who says of himself that he is the servant of the servants of God. And if the Supreme Pontiff is a servant, my daughters and sons, it is intolerable for there to be Catholics who do not want to be."
But we cannot forget that, while she is in herself holy, she gathers sinners into her bosom. “The Church, which is divine, is also human, because she is made up of men and we men have defects: All of us men are dust and ashes."
This is a reality that Christian souls have suffered throughout history, and which St Catherine of Siena sorrowfully felt in her heart. No member of the Church on earth is exempt from personal weaknesses. They can all be mistaken in their judgments and err in their behavior. For this reason, the knowledge of the weaknesses that the servants of the Church can have, as St. Josemaría also wrote, “will help you never to get scandalized if you should hear news items of this kind. And it will help you also to grow in love for the Church, the Spouse of Jesus Christ. It will move you, as with the good sons of Noah, to cover over with the cloak of charity and discretion the defects you may observe in persons that form a part of the People of God."
Although we ardently desire all people to be saints, our service to the Church must not be conditioned by the personal sanctity of her members. Our service and our love are directed to the spotless Spouse of Christ.