Daily reflection _ sunday of 3rd week OT

WE SHALL BE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE
Advertisers of all kinds recognize that there is a fever in our society to be one of the beautiful people. Many suffer from an obsessive dissatisfaction with their bodies as they are and fall under the spell of almost anyone who promises to make them look better. The vast cosmetics and fashion markets are some obvious examples of the endless industries that thrive on the desire of both women and men to be more physically attractive.
According to the New Testament, the truly beautiful people are God's gifted children. Who are they? They are not necessarily those who look good in a bathing suit or when outfitted for golf, a ball game, or a party. They are certainly not those who glory in the superficial trappings of what our culture deems success. Rather, they are those who have a gift for living, or more specifically, a gift for living meaningfully, lovingly, and with integrity. They are those whose lives are focused on fulfilling the intention of their Creator, in contrast to what the world considers successful.  Those who achieve success in the eyes of the world, having climbed at great price to the top, discover an emptiness they never anticipated. All who have lived primarily for themselves come to a lonely, disappointing end.
The truly beautiful people know what matters and what does not matter. They know that the world is preoccupied with outward appearances, but that God looks into the heart. They know that life consists in the abundance of what is given rather than received. The truly beautiful people know that joy is found less in achieving than in serving, and less in triumph than in trust. They know that they are God's gifted children, the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ Himself.
The truly beautiful people of God, including us, also possess an awareness of the source of their gifts. The church at Corinth made the mistake of forgetting the source of their gifts. The problem in this troublesome church was not that they were "lacking in any spiritual gift," but that they allowed their gifts to become sources of pride and dissension. St. Paul insisted that their many gifts had the one Spirit as their source (1 Cor 12: 13).  Remembering that a gift is a gift helps us keep things in perspective. We realize, "This is not mine. I did not generate it, so I can take no pride in it. I have been gifted, and the only proper response for me is gratitude and stewardship."
Further, the truly beautiful people of God live with the constant awareness of how their gifts are best expressed: namely, in community, in the company of the rest of God's gifted children. The metaphor St. Paul used for the church, here and elsewhere, is quite simple, yet exceedingly profound. The church is to be thought of as a body. Indeed, it is to be thought of as the body Christ. A physical body is characterized by both unity and variety, so that each member of the body is useful to all the rest but also needs all the rest. What a magnificent vision of the Christian community! No Christian alone is complete and independent, just as no bodily part is separated from the rest. We are roped together with God's greatest gift, His love.
Let us call forth and bless one another's gifts. Let us be in fact who we really are: God's gifted children. Then we shall be beautiful people indeed!