Friday January 5, 2018
“Who are you?” “How do you see yourself?” These are questions we ask one another to this day. But today we ask these questions especially of ourselves; today we tend to turn the searchlight inwards. “Who am I?” “How do I see myself?” In our complex world these are not trivial questions. There are many who are willing to offer us ready-made identities. Some of these identities are intensely tight-fitting: our world is full of cults and fanatical movements, secular and religious. Many look at you and don’t want to know who you are; they see only the identity they would like to impose on you. We had better know where to find our real identities.
“Among you stands one whom you do not know.” We do not know him because we cannot get away with imposing an identity on him—though we try all the time. Jesus the Catholic, Jesus the Protestant, Jesus the Baptist. Yes, John, we too are unworthy to untie the strap of his sandals.
