Who Am I?

I started to work on a personality test and then I stopped. I realized the personality test was based on what I think of myself.

Recently in the daily Mass readings, we heard how David was enraged that a rich man with hundreds of sheep would slaughter the only beloved sheep of a poor man as a meal for a visitor. David vowed to kill such a thoughtless, prideful and greedy man, not at all realizing the story was an allegory for his own sin of slaughtering Uriah the Hittite and taking his wife. I listened to the story at Mass and considered how poor we are at judging our own actions.

Now, taking on the task of self-reporting so the test could generate a personality profile, I decided I didn’t want a profile that depicts who I say I am.

What about getting someone else’s advice? That doesn’t always work well either. In today’s Gospel (Mark 6:1-6), Jesus comes back to His hometown and starts to preach in His old synagogue.

And this was the reaction of his former neighbors: Wait. Isn’t this that carpenter? Isn’t this the son of Mary? He thinks he’s some kind of prophet now? They thought: Who does he think he is? He needs to be put in his place, back in the box we built for him.

“And they took offense at him (Mark 6:3).”

No, other people’s opinions don’t always work either.

I have been on a journey of intense prayer lately to find out who I am. The person I’m asking is the One who made me. I don’t want to define myself or be in anyone’s box. I know well enough that God made every person uniquely and intentionally. So what was He intending when He made me? If He knows well the plans He has for me (Jer 29:11), then what are they?

Whenever someone puts you in a box of their making and whenever you put yourself in a box of your making, it’s a kind of curse. You are now defined outside of God’s vision. But, as Saint Catherine of Siena says, when you become the person God made you to be, you will set the world on fire.

I’m praying for the breaking of curses that put us in unholy boxes. Already, the Lord has told me some things about myself that are astounding. Actually, the things He has said are so nice that I sometimes have trouble believing them. Great is the dignity of humanity, which He deemed at creation “very good (Gen 1:31).”

The things He wants to say about you are nice too. I pray you will hear them.

#David #Mark #Gospel #Jeremiah #StCatherineofSiena #Genesis