Icon and Essay by T.R. Kozinski
St. Catherine of Siena was a young girl of no worldly consequence, like Mary of Nazareth, when the Lord of Heaven and Earth called on her. She was one of many children in a middle-class sort of family; she was a woman, she was unmarried, she was not a professed religious. One gets the impression that she was a beauty- a physically classical beauty. But perhaps, it is the spirit intertwined with the flesh which has come down through the centuries, giving artists the impression of beauty. Perhaps, more likely, it is both.
Our Lord chose St. Catherine to be “the humble that confounds the wise”. She follows in the footsteps of Daniel, Isaiah, Our Blessed Mother, St. John the Baptist, and all the prophets who cried in the deserts and called men back to their God. It is truly a a miraculous life, hers, that led her from a small girl’s chamber turned prayer and penance cell to the courts of the Pope and of kings. She was a Spouse of Christ, a peacemaker, a mystic, a counselor, a comforter, a prophetess, a lion and a lamb living together in the same person. Also, like Our Lord, she was a teacher as well. Her greatest work is The Dialogues; although she would probably say it was all God’s and that He only used her hand. For her profound teaching, she was named Doctor of the Church, one of three women elevated to this status.
This icon is concerned particularly on one of St. Catherine’s teachings on the Sacrament of Penance, or Confession. She taught that sin is like a leprosy of the soul, and that the Sacrament of Penance is in reality, the bathing of those ulcerated sores in His Precious Blood. The icon shows St. Catherine, showing us the reality of the Sacrament of Penance: her arm bears the nodules, the lesions and the ulcerated sores- all symptoms of leprosy- and the cleansing Blood of Christ.
Leprosy is a disease which occurs by the contraction of a bacteria. It can show on the skin by small nodules, or lesions which make that area of the skin less sensitive. This insensitivity can lead to further wounding due to lack of feeling in the leprous area. Leprosy can also ulcerate, eating away at the extremities of the body. Early recognition of the disease is crucial in its successful treatment. In eras when treatment was unknown, lepers were ostracized into colonies and mostly forgotten by the larger society around them.
Picture Jesus, “unknown except by the way the dust swirled about His feet”*, walking toward a leper sitting alone and hunched over, a small wooden bowl near a mutilated foot. Jesus leans over the pile of rags and gently says, “Son, do you wish to be clean?” A small eye peeks out from a dirty hood, a tear there for only Jesus to see. A nod. A touch of a pure and clean hand, emanating warmth, real physical warmth. The leper feels his very blood change temperature, and he feels the need to stand and stretch. He does, and shaking the extra rags off his back, smiles at Jesus. As the Saviour walks away, the new man follows Him, along with the rest of the crowd. There is no trace of any scar left on his body.
Picture yourself. Sin came in small nodules, small failings, and you didn’t pay attention. Slowly, those areas became less sensitive, to homilies, friends, concerned loved ones. You began to hide that area of your life, and the disease ate its way into the very center of your being. It became a monstrous, impossible task to go to confession. Finally, in some desperate moment of grace, you decided to go. And as the words of absolution flowed, so did His Blood. You are clean, in His eyes, no trace of a scar. Now follow Him.
St. Catherine of Siena, lowly woman, a spouse of Christ, Doctor of the Church, pray for us. Pray for all of us who need to receive Christ’s mercy in the Sacrament of Penance.
*Quote from a song by Bruce Cockburn
