(This article was published in the Denver Catholic Register on October 27, 2010)
Holiness: The perfection of love
By Jeanette DeMelo
Holiness and perfection seem so out of reach in my daily life. That stuff is for the saints and I’m no saint.
I stood challenged recently when Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles reminded a roomful of women that we are all called to be saints—holy and perfect.
Holiness is the perfection of love, he said. He explained this call to love in just such a way that I came away thinking it might actually be possible. Possible, that is, only by God’s overabundant grace.
Archbishop Gomez spoke to 180 women at the fifth annual ENDOW (Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women) Catholic Women’s Conference, held at St. Thomas More Church Oct. 15 and 16. The theme was “Called to Be Saints: Living in the World but not of the World.” The conference explored the lives of Servant of God Dorothy Day, St. Catherine of Siena and St. Edith Stein.
In his keynote address, the archbishop spoke of St. Frances Cabrini who, together with her nuns, gathered stones and formed a simple image of the Sacred Heart on a mountain. The stone heart remains today at Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, Colo.
By this example, Archbishop Gomez encouraged us to “gather stones into the heart of Jesus” and to “turn every corner of the world into a reflection of the Sacred Heart.”
Cautioning us not to lose heart when we don’t always see results, he said: “We live in a result-driven world. But the kingdom of heaven isn’t that way. It grows by little acts of faith…”
“The age of the saints is not past,” he continued. “In every age the Lord is calling out saints. In our day he is calling you … He calls us to have the courage to love, like Mother Cabrini, with the love that transforms hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.”
All of the conference speakers were keenly aware of the tendency to think of saints as drastically unlike “normal” people. Their stories made the saints real and showed that each saint’s life was a journey. They weren’t born saints.
Dorothy Day, whose life was presented by professor Terrance Wright, was seemingly the most un-saintly. Born in the late 19th century to a non-religious family, she was baptized Episcopal as a young girl but lost her faith during college.
Before she was 30, she got pregnant out of wedlock twice. Regrettably she aborted her first child.
God’s call was greater than her life’s chaos. Day kept her second child. She baptized her Catholic and became Catholic herself, believing “it was the greatest thing” she could do for her child.
Day eventually helped to found the Catholic Worker Movement, which spread Catholic social teaching. She opened houses of hospitality where the homeless and volunteers lived together in community.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux, who Day called “the Saint of the Responsible,” became her guide for living the little moments of each day with love. Day reminded those who worked with her that the little boy in the Gospel gave Jesus all he had, five loaves and two fish, and Jesus did the rest. Giving all daily was Day’s little way, and she reminds us that we too need to give Jesus all that we have and allow him to do the rest.
The other conference speakers presented on saints a little more commonly recognized for holiness.
Calling St. Catherine of Siena one of her best friends, Dominican Sister Catherine Joseph Droste presented on the life of the 14th-century lay Dominican mystic.
While there were many aspects of St. Catherine’s life that set her apart from the average 21st-century woman, Sister Droste suggested it was Catherine’s radical love for the human person that makes her so relevant today. St. Catherine knew that only by knowing God’s infinite love could we know ourselves and recognize who God calls us to be.
In studying the life of Edith Stein, author Elizabeth Mitchell said she found a soul sister. Mitchell presented on the 20th-century philosopher who converted to Catholicism after several encounters with “living images” of faith. For Stein, these living images were ordinary people who by their small daily actions revealed their deep love for Jesus Christ and their faith in God’s great love for them. Stein became a Carmelite nun and her life ended in martyrdom at the hand of the Nazis. Stein wrote extensively on the vocation of women and her writings offer both deep intellectual truths but also simple tips for keeping in the presence of God daily.
The 2010 ENDOW conference with its saintly theme came at a perfect time—a couple weeks before All Saints’ Day. Because of it, I won’t be so tempted to dismiss that day as a celebration for those who are so different from me. Rather, this year I will celebrate the saints as friends, soul sisters and prayer partners in a journey that we are all called to live. I hope you are encouraged to do the same.
Jeanette DeMelo is a founding board member of ENDOW. The 2010 ENDOW Conference talk CDs can be ordered at www.ENDOWonline.com.
