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!