St. Kateri Tekakwitha, an Image of the Church in Eschaton

 July 14 is the memorial feast of St. Kateri Tekakwitha (Santa Catherine Tekakwitha), the first Native American Saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Kateri’s father, Kenneronkwa, was a Mohawk (Kanienkehaka) chief. Her mother, Kahenta, was a Algonquin woman, who was Catholic. She was born in 1656, when the Mohawks, as part of the militarily powerful Iroquois League, were aggressive in campaigns to dominate trading with Europeans, especially Dutch traders, around the St. Lawrence River. It was rather a tumultuous period as les Guerres franco-iroquoises, a. k.a. the Beaver War, between the Iroquois League and the French, were taking place intermittently from 1609 to 1701. As a matter of fact, what brought Kateri’s Algonquin Christian mother, to her Mohawk father, Kenneronkwa, was les Guerres franco-iroquoises, as the Mohawks conquered the Algonquins. At the Mohawk’s conquest, many Algonquin people were subjugated to the Mohawks. So, this was what brought Kahenta to Kenneronkwa as his wife. And this is what was behind Kateri’s parents.

Les Guerres franco-iroquoises were not just series of wars between the Iroquois League, including the Mohawks, and other Native American tribal nations, such as the Algonquins. In fact, there were European settlers were behind. It was more of wars between the Dutch and the English powers, with the Iroquois League, against the French, with the Algonquin, the Erie, the Huron, the Mahican, and other tribal nations around the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River, over geopolitical and economic control. Before conquered by the Mohawks, Kateri’s Algonquin mother, Kahenta, was taught by a French missionary and converted to Christianity.

When Kateri was 4, smallpox epidemic took her parents’ lives, and she became an orphan. She was also infected, and her face bore scars from the smallpox infection, though she survived. Perhaps, it was by God’s grace as she was meant to live to meet Christ and become his servant before her death. Upon her parent’s death, she was raised by her Mohawk relatives.

Katerina fondly remembered something so comforting in hearing her Algonquin Catholic mother praying in whispering. Besides this, Kateri grew up in the Mohawk tradition, was raised as a Mohawk girl. But when she was 18, a French Jesuit missionary priest, Jacques de Lamberville, was brave enough to establish a chapel in her Mohawk community, though many Mohawk people did not like this “new religion” brought by Fr. De Lamberville.

Remembering being gravitated to her Algonquin Catholic mother’s whispering prayer as a little girl, Kateri did not want to forfeit this opportunity to learn more about what her mother was praying for. So, she received catechism instruction from Fr. De Lamberville’s Jesuit mission, in spite of her stepparents’ opposition. This opened her eyes of faith in Christ. Subsequently, Kateri accepted Christ and was baptized when she was 21. Though this made her so happy, it also meant an “excommunication” from her Mohawk community. She was tortured in her community and threatened to be killed – unless she would denounce her faith in Christ.

What made her Mohawk community’s persecution worse was also her refusal to give herself to marry to a Mohawk man. There was no way for her to let a pagan man take away her virginity. She had determined that her virginity was to be preserved for Christ’s sake.

Her heart and eyes of faith were firmly placed in Christ though the community’s persecution against her was intensifying. She wanted to devote her life for Christ. So, she managed to escape and made her “exodus” journey of more than 200 miles, spending nearly 2 months in 1677, crossing the St. Lawrence River. And she found her new refuge in another French Jesuit mission community, at Sault Saint-Louis in Quebec.

This “exodus” of Kateri is reflected in the First Reading (Hosea 2:16bc, 17cd, 21-22) for her feast day.

I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart. 

She shall respond there as in the days of her youth, when she came up from the land of Egypt (Hosea 2:16bc, 17cd).

 As Yahweh called His beloved Israel out of Egypt to draw closer to Him, delivering from the land of oppression and leading through the desert in Exodus, so God called Kateri to allure her to Christ, out of her Mohawk community while she was still young, as a newly baptized Catholic.

 And when she decided and took courage to leave her Mohawk community, Kateri must have herd God speaking His love for her as He spoke to His beloved Israel:

I will espouse you to me forever;

I will espouse you in right and in justice, in love and in mercy;

I will espouse you in fidelity, and you shall know the Lord (Ibid. 21-22).

In her “promised land”, found in the French Jesuit missionary community in Quebec, crossing St. Lawrence River as her “Red Sea”, as well as, “Jordan River”, she made her vow to consecrate her virginity to Christ, in response to his covenant love, reflected in Hosea 2:21-22. She served Christ in helping the Jesuit missionary, taking care of the sick and the poor, as well as, teaching – though she was not able to read and write well.  But, as God willed on her, empowered by the Holy Spirit, she was able to serve Christ fully, in spite of her poor health until her death at age 24.

The Gospel Reading (Matthew 25:1-13) for St. Kateri Tekakwitha’s memorial feast reflects her virginity, as she is known as “the Lily of the Mowhawks”. However, from a view point of the contextual biblical hermeneutics, an emphasis of the Gospel text of Matthew 25:1-13, known as Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins, is not on virginity or chastity or purity. Rather, it is to address the importance of our readiness to meet Christ in his return as Matthew 24 and 25 address the eschatological preparedness.

Nevertheless, on this occasion to honor St. Kateri Tekakwitha’s life, as consecrated virgin, we can juxtapose Kateri to the five virgins who endured a time of uncertainty without losing their readiness for the return of Christ in an unexpected hour by keeping their lamp oil burning.

For young Kateri, being allured to Christ and refusing a possibility to lose her virginity to marry to a Mohawk man, could mean death. She “betted” her life – her virginity – on Christ’s call, because she knew seeking him is better than becoming a wife of a powerful Mohawk chief. And, she remained ready to meet him at any moment. She did not gamble on “when” to meet him, as the foolish virgins in the Gospel Reading (Matthew 25:1-13) did. Kateri, a consecrated virgin, did not take a chance on her encounter with Christ, as the wise virgins in the Gospel Reading did not take a chance on the return of Christ, the bridegroom. Kateri must have known instinctively that Christ’s love for her rather transcends time. Thus, she sought his love, depositing her virginity as security, in light of his words in Matthew 6:19-21. Thus, she was not plagued with fear and anxiety, even in time of persecution, rejection, and of uncertainly in time of her “exodus”.

The fact that Kateri did not let her faith in Christ be compromised in living the tension between her Mohawk community and Christ’s loving espousal on her, is compared to the five wise virgins did not let their readiness to meet Christ the bridegroom, on his return in an unexpected hour. What is a common denominator of these two? It is uncompromising steadfast rock-solid faith in Christ.

St. Kateri Tekakwitha’s consecrated virginity not only symbolizes her purity but also her faith. She is a symbol of the Church in eschaton, the Bride of Christ. By juxtaposing her to the five wise virgins in Matthew 25:1-13, to honor her life on her memorial feast, we can make an eschatological projection of St. Kateri Tekakwitha as a symbolic figure for the  Bride of the Lamb (Revelation 21:9), the ultimate future of one holy catholic apostolic Church.

The Church today is not yet worthy to be the Bride of Christ the Lamb of God, the Son of the Father, for her purity is tainted with our sinfulness and worldly cultures. However, as known as the “Lily of the Mohawks”, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, for her consecrated virginity, stands as the ultimate future Church’s purity, standing in this world of impurity. And, she has paid her share of “price”, enduring suffering and “exodus” for her love for Christ, in response to his love for her.

Now, how does Christ inspire and allure you, in reference to the life of Mohawk virgin, St. Kateri Tekakwitha?

St. Kateri reminds us that we latch our hope in Christ, whose love transcends and is eternal, not anything in this world, as everything in the world is rather temporary in their existence. Therefore, we seek Christ’s Kingdom first (Matthew 6:33), and it is where he, the bridegroom took the five wise virgins with him upon his return.