Feast of St. Catherine of Siena -Â Â 2011
Jesus is our bridge to Heaven.
( St. Catherine’s Principal teachings and spiritual development.)
St. Catherine is well known for using images in her writings.
And so in her Dialogue, we find among other images that
of the BRIDGE, which God himself used in one of their
exchange  of  words – He said :
“I told you that I have made a bridge of the Word ( JESUS ),
My only-begotten Son, and such is the truth.  I want you to
realize, my children, that by Adam’s sinful disobedience  the road
was so broken  up  that no one could reach everlasting life.
Since  they had no share  in the good for  which I had created them,
they   did not give me the return of glory they owed me,  and so my
truth  was not fulfilled.   What is this truth ?
That I had created them in my image and likeness so that they might
have eternal life , sharing in my being and enjoying  my supreme
eternal tenderness and goodness. But because of their sin, they
never reached this goal and never fulfilled my truth,  for sin closed
heaven and the door of my mercy.
This sin sprouted thorns and troublesome vexations.  My creatures
found rebellion within themselves,  for as soon as they rebelled
against me,  they became rebels against themselves.
With sin there came at once the flood of a stormy river that beat
against them constantly with it waves,  bringing weariness and
troubles from themselves as well as from the devil and the world.
You were all drowning,  because not one of you, for all  your
Righteousness,  could reach eternal life.
But I wanted to undo these great troubles of yours.  So I gave  you
A  BRIDGE,  my Son,  so that you could cross over the river,  the stormy
sea  of this darksome life, without being drowned . “
See how indebted to me are my creatures !  And how foolish to
choose to  drown rather than accept the remedy I have given them ! “
My dear brothers and sisters in Our Holy Father St. Dominic,
I am sure we have all seen the terrible scenes of the extremely
powerful devastating  force of the Tsunami which hit Japan recently,
as a  follow-up of the earthquake.
After reflecting on these words that God spoke to Catherine,
I began to realize how serious  SIN  is in the eyes of Almighty God.
We all saw how devastating were the waters of the tsunami,
washing away everything in its path…wiping out whole cities.
My dear Brothers and Sisters ,  yes,  the tsunami is a most serious
and powerful destructive force  of Nature,  but all that is destroyed
after all  is  the material side of life, even though Man himself
was also destroyed in many cases, and human relationship were lost.
BUT  when  the storm of life  coming through  SIN caused by
our following the  temptations of the Devil and the World,
strikes us …it is  eternal life  that is lost !
We are made in the likeness and image of God, to return to Him
after we have lived this life according to HIS WILL,  that is
to KNOW,  LOVE  and  SERVE HIM.
But since the road of life was destroyed by the spiritual tsunami
caused by Adam’s first sin,   we had no means of returning to
our heavenly home…
So, God is telling Catherine…I  have built this  BRIDE – which is
My only begotten Son,  Jesus Christ himself… who is the WAY
THE  TRUTH  AND THE  LIFE…    Follow  HIM  and you will  be
saved.
Yes, my dear brothers  and sisters,  we have THIS  BRIDGE –
are we not grateful to Our Lord  Jesus Christ for having accepted
HIS  Father’s  will  in  coming into our life,  lived  the difficulties
of human life,  suffered  the  insults,  the cruelties of his persecutors,
who rejected HIM  after all THE GOOD He had done for them …
and finally   even  condemned  HIM  to the most shameful, cruel form
of death –  the  Crucifixion   ?
And  Jesus did all this simply  out  of  LOVE  FOR  US,  nothing else.
And should we be so foolish as to drown in our sins of selfishness,
obstinacy  and  pride… rather than accept  JESUS  as  OUR  BRIDGE
TOÂ Â HEAVEN ?
(Fr. Lionel Xavier, OP)