‘Walk the talk’. That may be the simplest way of expressing Jesus’ message to us today. Our late beloved Pope Francis, in his encyclical “Fratelli Tutti”, says it this way:
“Now there are only two kinds of people: those who care for someone who is hurting and those who pass by; those who bend down to help and those who look the other way and hurry off.”[1]
In our gospel, Jesus didn’t fault the Pharisees for their zeal for the things of God, but rather for focusing on small matters of observance and not enough on God and his desire to love and serve. They ‘talked the talk’ but didn’t ‘walk the talk’. Jesus then calls them, and us, to an attitude of humble, loving service to others by giving of ourselves, being available when a need arises, yet thinking nothing of it.
Such is how the saint we celebrate today, St. Katherine Drexel, lived her life. Katherine was born in 1858 into a very wealthy family in Philadelphia. Her father was a prominent banker, but unfortunately, when she was 5 weeks old, her mother died. Later, her father married Emma Bouvier who was a devout Catholic. Although Katherine was privileged by having the best education, travelling the world, and enjoying all the finer things that money provides, it was her stepmother Emma who instilled in her a great love of charity to those who are less fortunate. Emma and Katherine distributed food, medicine, clothing and money to the poor 3 days a week.
In time, her stepmother became terminally ill, and Katherine nursed her for 3 years. It was then that she saw that all their money couldn’t save anyone from illness or death, and she had a profound conversion of heart.
When her father died, he left Katherine millions of dollars which she wanted to use to help the needy, especially the Native and Afro Americans whom she had seen living so desperately and being treated so cruelly while she was travelling.
When she met Pope Leo XIII on a trip to Rome, she asked him to send missionaries to Wyoming to help these people. The Pope looked at her and said: “Why don’t you become a missionary?” She was shocked at his reply, but it got her thinking seriously about it.
Eventually, she became a Religious Sister and founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. She used her inherited family wealth to start aiding the Native and Afro Americans. In the ensuing years and in many States, the Sisters established 145 missions, 12 schools for Native Americans, and 50 schools for Afro Americans, including Xavier University of Louisiana, the only historically black Roman Catholic college in the US.
In 1935 Katherine suffered a severe heart attack, but lived for the next 20 years in quiet, prayer-filled retirement. Upon her death in 1955, the remainder of her estate was given to charity. She truly walked the talk. She was canonized in 2000.
May Katherine’s example of service encourage us and her prayer inspire us: “Teach me to know your Son intimately, to love him ardently, and to follow Him closely.”
[1] https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html, paragraph 70
