I am reading a book by M. Basil Pennington entitled The True Self/The False Self. The book has very good insights into our true self being our identity in God, being made in God's image and likeness. For most of us this discovery takes a life time and is aided by prayer and contemplation.I think also that Jesus gives us a prescription for finding our "true self" in the Gospels. For an example, if we look at the Beatitudes, we can see this prescription. The Gospel of Matthew tells us
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are they
who mourn,
blessed are the meek, blessed are they who hunger and thirst
for righteousness, blessed are the clean of heart, blessed are
the peacemakers and blessed are the persecuted." (Mt. 5:1-12).
I think these beatitudes are all attributes of Jesus, of God who became one of us. Jesus is calling us to be like God in whose image we are made. Can we identify with any one of them? Perhaps we are called to strive for them and to recognize ourselves in each of them because they are a sharing in God's image and likeness.
Sr. Barbara Woeste, OSB
