If I had a beautifully decorated box, ribbon and all, in one hand, and a small, crumbled-up paper bag in the other, and said you could have one, which would you take?
Knowing that I am a former high school teacher, you will recognize this as a trick question and opt for the paper bag. And guess what? Good choice!
Inside the decorated box is a crisp one dollar bill. Inside the bag, however, is wrinkled twenty-dollar bill. We know that value is more important than appearance.
Today we celebrate the feast day of perhaps the most beautiful woman ever born in the United States. She is the young native American, Kateri Tekawitha. This young woman was born in New York, baptized at an early age, died at the age of twenty-four, and canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church in 2012.
Kateri was a victim of a smallpox epidemic that impaired her eyesight and disfigured her face. On the outside she would be categorized as “ugly;” on the inside, however, she shone as one of the most beautiful women on earth. Through the eyes of the Holy Spirit, the Church was able to get a glimpse of what was inside the “paper bag” of her life.
She has been appropriately named as the “Lily of the Mohawks”—a radiant white flower whose petals reach out not only to her own people but to all the inhabitants of the earth. Disfigured on the outside, a fresh flower on the inside.
God’s word from Isaiah (Isaiah 26:7-9,12,16-19) reminds us about true beauty. The deepest inside of the prophet’s being speaks:
“Your name and your title are the desire of our souls. My soul yearns for you in the night, yes, my spirit within me keeps vigil for you.”
Isaiah was wrapped up in God’s love. Just to hear God’s name and his title was enough to stir him. Not only during the day but through the night he longed to be close to God, and he didn’t want to miss a surprise visit from Him. There is nothing in Scripture to indicate that Isaiah was handsome, strong, or had a sparkling personality. His words, however, expose his insides—one of the most beautiful people who ever lived.
Psalm 102 (13-21) reminds us of how God evaluates us. “(H)e has regarded the prayer of the destitute, and not despised their prayer.”
God is looking, not at the boxes or bags in which we are wrapped, but in the contents of our hearts. For him the most beautiful people on earth, like Tekawitha, are the poor who constantly open their hearts to him in prayer. It is so good that the Church keeps reminding us to be one with these poor.
Finally the gospel selection gives us God’s ultimate beauty secret (Matthew 11:28-30). Jesus speaks to us, even now, these comforting words:
“Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.”
We all want to be beautiful. How much of our burden comes in trying to achieve the kind of beauty valued by the world? We come to Jesus, for relief. He puts our lives in perspective. We have the beauty we long for already—inside our hearts, the presence of his love. So we can let go now and rest. Gently we yoke ourselves to him and begin to feel the light-heartedness of wearing his yoke and embracing his burden. We come to belief how he sees us, even more than how we may see and evaluate ourselves.
“How beautiful you are, O virgin of Christ, who were worthy to receive God’s crown, the crown of perpetual virginity” (from today’s Entrance Antiphon at Mass).
