Where is beauty in your life?

   We commonly overlook beauty.  Whether it be the Spring flowers or the Fall leaves, we move right past beauty as if it was insignificant.  And yet, the beauty of the Spring flowers and Fall leaves, if we take the time to marvel at them, are nothing compared to the image and likeness of God -- you and I.

   The beauty in your life begins with you.  To God, you are more precious and beautiful than all of the flowers He ever created.  EVER!  That may seem like high praise to live up to, but you really are that beautiful to Him.  And how can you question Him, after all He is all-knowing.

   And yet, the beauty in your life does not end with you, that is merely where it begins.  We are all connected to others who are also the image and likeness of God.  Sure, like us, they may have marred that beauty with sin, but that does not diminish the beauty that God sees in us and in them.

   As a beautiful image and likeness of God, we are to keep ourselves as beautiful as we can.  We cannot remove that beauty that is within us, but we can mar it with sin.  Unlike Mary, we all sin.  She who was and is "full of grace" never had any blemish to her beauty.  Indeed, as a creature, she is God's crowning achievement.  That does not diminish our beauty though.  Indeed, beauty does not compete with beauty.  But she is a perfect person to model ourselves after.

   And so, to restore our beauty, we need God.  We are not greater than our sins, but God is greater.  Indeed, He would not be God if He was not greater than our sins.  And when we give our sins to God in Confession, we give Him permission to restore our beauty.  Indeed, Jesus works this immense wonder through another image and likeness of God in a priest.  It is this spiritual father that reconciles us with the family, not due to his own power, but because that is the role of a father as we acknowledge when we pray the Lord's Prayer and ask Our Father to "forgive us our trespasses".

   You have a beauty that surpasses the greatest flower, the most splendid sunrise, and far surpasses any painting.  You are the image and likeness of God and God looks at you with greater love than any artist looked at his greatest masterpiece.  You are God's masterpiece.  Now, live like it.

   Mary, Full of Grace, our mother, help us to restore our beauty and live lives worthy of our beauty.  Amen.