Too many times I think that we think we are being holy when we can pick up our fingers, point them,  and accurately discern the sin that our neighbor has committed….did you notice how I dragged you right into this?….all right….Let me re-phrase that. Too many times, I think I am being holy when I can accurately discern sin in someone else’s life. It’s so darn easy isn’t it? They are too focused on money or they gossip or lust or are ungenerous with their time or their money. But in the end, most of the time they know they are sinning and quite frankly don’t need hypocritical me stepping in to do the Holy Spirit’s job. And in the end, my helpfully pointing out where the poor sinner needs to straighten up usually just ends in ME being accused of being judgmental…can you imagine? Truthfully, I don’t go around pointing such things out but I do stuggle with the temptation to do so from time to time. But perhaps it is because I am so easily tempted to uncharitableness and judgementalism that I was so struck by St. Catherine of Siena. Here was a woman who was so intensely devoted to Our Lord and so deeply committed to rooting out all worldliness in her life that she simply radiated the Holy Spirit. Apparently she inspired people to abandon their sinful lives by get this….just being holy. She didn’t walk into a room and tell a priest that he was violating his vow of poverty by the richness of his possessions. She didn’t stand on a street corner, point her finger, and tell the notorious libertine that he should leave his married mistress. No. She just sat and listened or watched or prayed (silently) and the next thing  you know these people were making a beeline for the confessional, selling their possessions and giving them to the poor, and abandoning their worldly ways. Not because she said a word about it to them but because she gave herself completely to Our Lord and trusted the Holy Spirit in her to speak to those around her instead of opening her mouth herself.