The loss of self-identity

WORD 2day: Monday, 3rd week in Ordinary time

January 17,2022: 1 Samuel 15: 16-23; Mark 2: 18-22

I am called. I am chosen. I am set apart as a son or daughter of God, in Christ. That is not a simple statement to make because it radically defines my self-identity. How others look at me, may or may not change... but how I look at myself has to be fundamentally affected by the fact of being a child of God. 

I may be able to convince others to believe in an identity that I may not really possess; but can I deny my real identity before God? God knows my through and through and no amount of excuse or rationalisation can justify me in God's presence, if I tend to live with a duplicity in life. The readings today bring this point home to us, with clarity and strength.

Saul knew what he was doing, but wished to project a self that was unreal. Samuel or the people could be pacified by the reasons he gave, but in front of God his innermost intentions lay bare! A sense of deliberate duplicity is one of the primary instances of loss of self-identity. 

In the Gospel Jesus presents to us another instance of the loss - doing whatever you do, without even realising why you do! The intentions that you have may not be wrong or false, but even being unclear is a loss of self identity. That is, whatever you believe in, whatever you do as an expression of your faith, has to be reasoned out, purposeful and deliberately chosen to grow in your identity as a child of God.