This past Saturday, I passed two men as I was walking across campus. They were commending the fact that a mutual acquaintance of theirs is always smiling, and one man said to the other, “Well, the reason she’s always smiling is—”
And suddenly they were out of earshot. I think I might have overheard the most important part of the conversation, though. The men were concerned with the reason why she is always smiling. The mere fact that she’s always smiling is wonderful enough; but without a reason why, it would be an empty and meaningless fact. It would no longer be truly wonderful, it would just be strange. We are always seeking the reason for things, and for good reason.
St. Augustine wrote, “Let us see how far reason can advance from visible to invisible things in its ascent from temporal to eternal things. We should not vainly behold the beauty of the sky” (“On True Religion,” page 251). He makes the point that all things point to their ultimate beginning and end – God, our good Father and Creator. We should not admire the sunrise and leave it at that; rather, we should admire the sunrise, and give thanks and praise to the incredible God who bestows such a gift on us every morning, not for any necessity but purely out of love. Similarly, these men were not content to simply know a woman who smiles. They wanted to look beyond the smile, and appreciate its source and understand the cause. The fact that she smiles for a reason is much more important than the fact that she smiles.
Since Saturday, I have occasionally wondered who this woman is and why she’s always smiling. I could venture a few guesses, but it would all be pure speculation. Instead, I like to think about the way she has impressed upon these men that she smiles for a reason. She smiles enough that it is noticed and praised, but she smiles such that her peers do “not vainly behold the beauty of the” smile. She conducts herself in such a way that her motivations are clear. And that is admirable. I wonder, then, if an inversion of St. Augustine’s words could also be meaningful.
Let us not vainly behold the beauty of things around us, but let us also not vainly display beauty. We should not “fake it till we make it” – we should be genuine in all of our actions so that our meaning and purposes show through. Let’s be intentional in our reception of God’s gifts, such as the sky or a smile, and let’s also be intentional in our giving of gifts, in favors and smiles of our own. Let us always seek the reason why.