Called to Love More

This is a reprint of one of my more popular blog posts, which I had intended to re-run each year on this day. Unfortunately, last year about this time, Pope Benedict XVI announced his abdication, which pretty much occupied my blogging focus.

I‘m gratified that the Pope Emeritus is said to be doing well. When he was elected, he took the name Benedict, after the great saint of that name. But Saint Benedict is only half the story.

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Saint Benedict was the founder of western monasticism; to this day, most monks and nuns worldwide follow some variation of his “Little Rule for Beginners“.

Benedict had a twin sister, Scholastica, whose feast day is today. Under her brother’s guidance, she founded the first female monastery in the west.

I often think that their parents had a sense of humour, for “Benedict” means “blessing” and “Scholastica” means “scholar”. So right there you have the great Catholic way of faith and reason.

Interestingly, in our earliest account of the two, Scholastica is depicted as having the greater love, the greater faith. This story forms part of today’s Office of Readings, and with your kind indulgence I will repeat it in full.

Scholastica, the sister of Saint Benedict, had been consecrated to God from her earliest years. She was accustomed to visiting her brother once a year. He would come down to meet her at a place on the monastery property, not far outside the gate.

One day she came as usual and her saintly brother went with some of his disciples; they spent the whole day praising God and talking of sacred things. As night fell they had supper together.

Their spiritual conversation went on and the hour grew late. The holy nun said to her brother: “Please do not leave me tonight; let us go on until morning talking about the delights of the spiritual life.” “Sister,” he replied, “what are you saying? I simply cannot stay outside my cell.”

When she heard her brother refuse her request, the holy woman joined her hands on the table, laid her head on them and began to pray. As she raised her head from the table, there were such brilliant flashes of lightning, such great peals of thunder and such a heavy downpour of rain that neither Benedict nor his brethren could stir across the threshold of the place where they had been seated.

Sadly he began to complain: “May God forgive you, sister. What have you done?” “Well,” she answered, “I asked you and you would not listen; so I asked my God and he did listen. So now go off, if you can, leave me and return to your monastery.”

Reluctant as he was to stay of his own will, he remained against his will. So it came about that they stayed awake the whole night, engrossed in their conversation about the spiritual life.

It is not surprising that she was more effective than he, since as John says, God is love, it was absolutely right that she could do more, as she loved more.

Three days later, Benedict was in his cell. Looking up to the sky, he saw his sister’s soul leave her body in the form of a dove, and fly up to the secret places of heaven. Rejoicing in her great glory, he thanked almighty God with hymns and words of praise. He then sent his brethren to bring her body to the monastery and lay it in the tomb he had prepared for himself.

Their minds had always been united in God; their bodies were to share a common grave.

(From The Dialogues by Pope Saint Gregory the Great)

She loved more, and so was capable of so much more. That is one of the great lessons of this saint’s life. Our mission in life is to become holy in imitation of Christ. This means that we must throw wide our nets of love so to draw in the whole world.

We are called to love as Christ loved. We are called to love every human without condition. This is why the church has founded hospitals and orphanages and shelters and schools and soup kitchens.

That every human is a sinner is surely besides the point. We can certainly hate what people do; we can certainly struggle against injustice and tyranny, but we must love those who practice injustice. We must love the tyrant.

We were called to love King Henry VIII even as we fought his unjust laws condemning Catholic teaching and faith.

We must love President Barack Obama even as we fight his unjust laws condemning Catholic teaching and faith.

We must love every child in the womb, as well as those who murder them.

We must love those who wish us harm.

None of this can stop us from teaching the truth in the face of those who wish us silenced.

The people who founded this country enshrined the freedom of religion as the first article of our Bill of Rights. Like many of these rights, this one is eroding at an alarming rate.

I would not have thought it possible, but even friends of mine refer to Catholic hospitals and schools as “businesses” rather than as what they are: the works of mercy to which our faith impels us.

Are our soup kitchens also a business?

The new regulations promulgated by the federal government require Catholic institutions to provide free contraceptives and abortifacients to those who work there. The only exception is made if the staff is exclusively Catholic and those served are exclusively Catholic.

Which is of course an absurd infringement of religious liberty. Are we now required to turn away every person who comes to Catholic hospitals and orphanages and shelters and schools and soup kitchens if they are not Catholic? Or shall we simply stop practicing what we preach?

My friends say “it’s the law” without understanding that an unjust law is no law at all.

Slavery was the law, and compelled by their faith the abolitionists fought it.

Segregation was the law, and compelled by their faith the leaders of the civil rights movement fought it.

Compelled by the understanding our faith gives us of the meaning of love and life, Catholics have fought the death penalty and abortion. We have fought for nuclear disarmament, immigration rights, and for universal health care.

And now we are told that our faith needs to be kept in our church buildings and not in the public square. We are, in essence, being told by the government how to practice our religion.

That is simple tyranny, and it stands squarely against the principles upon which this nation was founded. What happened to tolerance? What happened to liberalism?

I will say this, this single regulation has accomplished something I once thought impossible. The most progressive of Catholics, even those who disagree with the magisterium on birth control, have joined with their conservative and traditionalist brethren in expressing their disapproval of this regulation.

When you’ve lost Chris Matthews, Mister President, you’ve lost the Catholic left.

A few years ago, Francis Cardinal George of Chicago gave a talk on the erosion of religious freedom in the United States. He said something that I sincerely hope was not prophetic:

I expect to die in bed. My successor will die in prison, and his successor will die a martyr in the public square.

The Church will get through this, of course. This hardly rises to the level of “the Gates of Hell”, and Christ promises that we will prevail against those.

Pray for our leaders, for the men and women who rule this country in our name. Pray for the President.

And love them all.