Homily: July 14 2016 - Saint Kateri Tekakwitha - Magnifying Christ through a life of dutiful service

 At Kateri Tekakwitha’s Beatification in 1980, Saint Pope John Paul II said this of her: the sweet, frail yet strong figure of a young woman died when she was only twenty-four years old: Kateri Tekakwitha, the "Lily of the Mohawks" …spent her short life partly in what is now the State of New York and partly in Canada. She was a kind, gentle and hardworking person, spending her time working, praying, and meditating…When her family urged her to marry, she replied very serenely and calmly that she has Jesus as her only spouse…This decision, in view of the social conditions of women in the Indian Tribes at the time, exposed Kateri to the risk of living as outcast and in poverty…at the age of twenty-three, with the consent of her spiritual director, Kateri took a vow of perpetual virginity - as far as we know the first time that this was done among the North American Indians.

The last months of her life were an ever clearer manifestation of her solid faith, straight-forward humility, calm resignation and radiant joy, even in the midst of terrible sufferings. Her last words, simple and sublime, whispered at the moment of her death, sum up, like a noble hymn, a life of purest charity: "Jesus, I love you....".

Her beatification should remind us that we are all called to a life of holiness, for in Baptism, God has chosen each one of us "to be holy and spotless and to live through love in his presence". (Eph. 1:4) Holiness of life--union with Christ through prayer and works of charity--is not something reserved to a select few among the members of the Church. It is the vocation of everyone."

At her canonization in 2012, Pope Benedict said, “Her greatest wish was to know and to do what pleased God. She lived a life radiant with faith and purity.”

Here is a woman who was ostracized for her faith, she was driven from her Tribe. To be faithful was a cross, but it was a yoke that was sweet and light because of her love for Jesus. Despite the social pressures lived a life of humble service and prayer, and her service, her labor for Christ was not a burden, but a source of constant refreshment.  How important for all of us to keep in mind examples such as St. Kateri. To seek to “magnify God” through our own “dutiful service” and, like Saint Kateri, to strive to hold fast to Christ alone for the glory of God and salvation of souls.