[Message from our Executive Director, Daniel Wasserman-Soler]
Dear Friends,
On the day of Christ’s resurrection, I write to share with you a passage from the Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena (d. 1380). The only laywoman named a doctor of the Church, her feast day is this month: April 29. St. Catherine’s dialogue with God offers us a record of her visions. This passage is one of many in which God spoke directly to the Italian saint:
The disobedience of your first parent Adam closed heaven to you – and from that disobedience came all evil through the whole world. To relieve man of the death that his own disobedience had brought, I tenderly and providently gave you my only-begotten Son to heal you and bring satisfaction for your needs. I gave him the task of being supremely obedient, to free the human race of the poison that your first parent’s disobedience had spread throughout the world. Falling in love, as it were, with his task, and truly obedient, he hurried to a shameful death on the most holy Cross. By his most holy death he gave you life: not human life this time, but with the strength of his divinity.
This passage begins with Adam, whose “disobedience had spread throughout the world,” giving birth to “all evil.” Jesus, however, relieves humankind of disobedience. His supreme obedience brings healing and the possibility of eternal life. He fell in love with his task and even “hurried to a shameful death.”
Today, as the Church celebrates new life through Christ’s resurrection, St. Catherine’s words remind me of the central place of obedience in the Christian life. The life of Jesus —and the lives of the saints — reveals that obedience can lead us to love even the most difficult tasks.
Yours in Christ,
Daniel Wasserman-Soler
Executive Director
Lumen Christi Institute