WHO AM I?

© by Husac Lucian @ www.freeartisticphotos.com


If we are made in God's image then we have to ask the question god asked, "Who am I?" God asked that question of God's self and BOOM came creation. God is a creator God. When I know who I am and live out who I am, I will be my most creative and fulfilling self, and I will be most at service to others. In John's gospel, God is referred to as the Word. Jesus is the Word. God speaks language. This is how God expresses God's Self. Words of Scripture are important. We need to sit with Scripture and let it work on us. Those words of Scripture are alive with the presence and identity of God.

Institutions try and give us answers, tradition, the way things are done and believed, but they do not encourage us to ask the question, "Who am I?" The answers will not serve us if they cannot mesh with my question, my sense of Self. If I am told to go to mass but no reason is given that responds to my question(s), then I will go as long as power (parents, fear of hell) make me go, but once free of this, I will stop attending. When I can make sense out of religious practice in my experience of Self then I will go back to mass.

Questions help us to deepen our faith, or even to own our faith as the gift it is for me. St. Augustine asked the question of "Who am I?" His response led him to God. God wants to be with us. If we ask questions, we will find God. But be willing to search. For most of us, about as far as we get with "Who am I?" is to ask, "What do I want to do for a living, or with my life?" We may choose a path because it is safe, or gives us a sense of esteem or power/money. But if it is not who I am, it will only lead to misery and ruin.

Jesus asked himself this question. At 12 years of age, he stayed in Jerusalem in the temple with the teachers asking questions even though he upset his parents. When we ask, "Who am I?" We may upset some people who have an answer, but not our answer.