“Be who God called you to be and you will set the world on fire.”
- St Catherine of Siena
I can still recall hearing these words for the first time. I was 16, going through all the normal stuff 16-year-olds go through, with so many questions about my worth, my identity, my future and the people around me. It struck me at the time because it felt so relevant. However, as years went past, I heard this same quote over and over. The initial fire this quote started within me seemed to have fizzled out.
It was not until about two years ago, that I got to know a bit more about the saint behind the quote, St Catherine of Siena, through the Abiding Together Podcast. You may or may not remember that I had mentioned this very episode in a previous blog – but don’t worry I won’t repeat myself. One of the things that stood out to me was that she cut her hair - let me give you a bit of context. She lived a pretty tough life, born during the plague, losing almost half of her siblings. When she was 16, one of her sisters died and her parents wanted her to marry her late sister’s widowed husband. To avoid marriage, she tried to diminish her beauty by cutting her hair. She later pursued religious life, writing to the Pope, going where God called her to.
I think about it now, and although the quote sounds cliché, how can this quote be irrelevant at any point in time? I suppose this is why it is commonly used - because of its timelessness. The world tells us to be ourselves, to live the way we want and not to let anyone define our identity. At the same, time the world criticizes us for not being ______ enough, or for being too much. It’s like we can never win. Well, to some extent this is true. We can never win the acceptance of the world. But good for us, we don’t need to, because there’s someone who loves us with no conditions. Someone whose love, time and attention we don’t have to win, but instead, are always readily given. This someone, is none other than God.
Each of us were willed to be present here on Earth by our Father. We have our own purpose. But when times get tough, and the people around us seem to have such varied opinions, it can be so difficult. As Christians, God calls us out of comfort. So, what we do may not seem to make much sense to others. But if we care about what others think, are we valuing their opinions over God’s? Therefore, there exists two paths to take. One, is to follow the path of someone like Pontius Pilate. Before condemning Jesus to death, Pilate struggled with this decision. He repeatedly went inside and out to the crowds who were urging him to crucify Jesus. He, of course, decided to do as the crowds pleased though he seemed deeply disturbed. On the contrary, saints such as St Catherine, did not succumb to the opinions of others. This doesn’t mean they were unaffected but that they chose to follow the Father’s will, one leading to eternal life and true freedom. Pontius Pilate or St Catherine. We have the freedom to choose which path to take. But which of these paths maintains access to freedom?
God created us for a specific purpose that only we can fill and our goal in life is to do just that, so that in His time, we will find ourselves in the company of Our Father and the rest of the saints. But until then, let us take the path that God is calling us to, knowing that He is with us every step of the way (including detours).
“All the way to heaven is heaven, because Jesus said, "I am the way.”
- St Catherine of Siena
via.
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