Where do you find identity and connection?
In Chapter 58 of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, the people have returned from exile to a home that is in ruins, and they must rebuild from scratch. They have the wherewithal to do this, and their first impulse is to rebuild the social structures that had previously been in place in Israel. But the Lord exhorts them first and foremost to see their fellow human beings as all children of God. If they do so, then the structures they now build will be grounded in respect and honor and care and concern for one another. The Lord thus calls the people to a better humanity grounded in the one who made humanity: Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless, and do not turn your back on your own… If the people find their identity in God, then such other-centeredness will be easily accomplished, and the light shall rise for them in the darkness, and the gloom shall become like midday. This sentiment is echoed in Psalm 112: Light shines through the darkness for the upright. Here, too, identity is grounded in generosity, in graciousness, and in connectedness – in short, in God.
When, in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that they are the salt of the earth, he knows that salt, on its own, is good for little; its value comes from its interaction with other substances. Likewise, light must not be hidden away but shared: nor do they light a lamp and put it under a bushel, Jesus says. If Jesus reveals the light of truth to the disciples, it is meant for the sake of other people. Jesus intended his disciples to be other-centered – they are fishers of men, not hermits, sent to interact with the world, to cause something to be transformed in the world through their interaction with it. Jesus loves them that they might love their world.
Jesus so loved the world that he gave his very life for it. In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul reminds them that, in order to proclaim the Word, he emptied himself, resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Paul’s singular objective is to reveal the mystery of God entrusted to him: God’s desire to gather humanity to himself in love. Nothing is greater than that mystery, and Paul is in awe of it. His identity is grounded in the Lord; his proclamation, like that of the disciples, is intended to transform his world with the greatest of spiritual gifts, love, the embodiment of the truth Christ came to reveal. May we too find our identity in the Lord, that we might connect with our world and thus reveal his love all.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
