Today I want to take a look at the story of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha because her feast day is today.
Saint Kateri was a Native American from a Mohawk tribe, and she was born in 1656 in a village near Ogdensburg, New York. In 1660 a smallpox epidemic swept through her Mohawk village. Smallpox is a deadly disease that the European settlers brought with them and 90 % of the Native Americans died because they had not built up a resistance to it. Smallpox claimed the lives of her parents and her baby brother. Kateri survived the epidemic, but it left her eyesight impaired, and her body scarred with pock marks. It also left her physically weak for the rest of her life. After her parents died, she was adopted by her aunt and uncle.
In 1674 she met a Jesuit priest, and she expressed her desire for baptism. On April 5, 1676, she was baptized, and she was given the name Kateri. In August 1677, Kateri left her village and moved to the St. Francis Xavier Mission near Montreal Canada. Her days were devoted to teaching prayers to children and helping the sick and visiting the elders of her community until she became very frail and weak.
On April 17, 1680, she died at the age of 24. Her last words were: "Jesus, I love you." Soon after she died, Catholics began to claim that favors and miracles had been obtained through her intercession. Saint Kateri was canonized by Pope Benedict in 2012 and her feast day is July 14. Her canonization is important because it means that Native American Catholics have a saint of their own. They say, “We have always considered her to be a saint and we are pleased that the whole church now recognizes her sainthood.” Her sainthood was based on her life of prayer.
Kateri often went into the forest to pray. She went alone - to speak to God and to listen to God in the voice of nature. She was listening to the voice of God in the trees and in Native American spirituality the trees always speak about peace. “Kateri was a child of nature, and her sainthood inspires the minds and hearts of those who love nature and work for ecology.” Pope Francis has declared her to be a patron saint of ecology. Her sainthood challenges us to take better care of God’s creation. Everything comes from the hands of God and therefore everything deserves our highest respect and care.
She is also a patron saint for health care workers because she provided health care for the sick in her village. She tended to their injuries and decreased the loneliness that they were feeling.
In today’s Gospel Jesus called His disciples to go forth on a mission. He sent them out to proclaim that God is kind and merciful. He sent them out to proclaim that message to the sick. He told His disciples to tell people with poor health that God loves them. His message about God’s love gave people hope.
The Pharisees had told them that God is condemning them. The Pharisees said, “If you are sick, that is a sign that God doesn’t like you. If you are poor, that’s another sign that God does not like you.” But Jesus said, “God shows no favoritism. God loves each and every one of you.” And that message filled people with hope.
One good example of a faith-filled disciple was Saint Lawrence. He was a deacon living in Rome in the third century. When he was ordained a deacon the bishop said, “I want you to serve the Church by caring for the sick and by preaching at Mass.
One day the king said to himself: “Since Lawrence is serving at the altar, he must have access to gold chalices and silver candlesticks.” So, he told Lawrence, “I command you to bring me all the treasures of the church.” Three days later St. Lawrence came to the palace with several dozen people. He brought forward people who were sick and people who were hungry and people who were homeless. Lawrence said to the king. “This is the treasure of the church. Jesus is living in these people; so, this is the treasure of the church. Jesus is our highest treasure, and these people are his sacred vessels now and always.”
This caused the king to be very upset and he ordered his soldiers to kill Saint Lawrence. Saint Lawrence saw Jesus living in the hearts of those who are sick and for that he was killed. He wanted the spiritual kingdom to break into the Rome’s secular kingdom and the king would have none of that!
I wish to conclude with a short summary. In today’s Gospel Jesus commissioned His disciples to care for the sick. In the third century, Saint Lawrence had compassion for the sick and suffering in his community. In the seventeenth century, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha brought Good News to the sick in her community when she said to them, “God loves you.” And today, Jesus is commissioning us to bring our care and concern to those who are hurting in our community.
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