When I was grocery shopping recently, I saw a remarkable T-shirt worn by a fellow shopper. On the back was a message “to the person behind me.” I wish I could remember the exact words that followed but they were encouraging, related to the goodness of whomever was behind, reading the shirt. When I faced her to say thanks, I noticed the T-shirt front read “you’re worth it.” This was a refreshing, beautiful message affirming the dignified identity of other human beings, an identity message far different than is often sent through contemporary clothing.
A frequently discussed topic in our culture today is identity. Many people, including and especially the young, face identity confusion. In this Sunday’s Gospel passage Jesus asks his disciples a question about his identity. Jesus does so to bring clarity to them (not to himself) about who he is. Simon Peter answers the question correctly, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16). Then what does Jesus do? Jesus immediately conveys a new and deeper identity upon him — giving him the name Peter as well as the mission to lead the Church and to be an instrument of forgiveness. On my annual priest retreat, speaker Jake Khym of the John Paul II Healing Center commented on this passage: “Once we get Jesus’ identity right then we can get our identity right.”
It is worth noting that Peter’s declaration was not the first time Jesus’ identity was revealed. When Jesus was baptized, our heavenly Father announced, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17). As Catholics, we believe that when we are baptized in Christ, we take on the identity of being an adopted son or daughter of God, as well as what was said by our heavenly Father of Jesus is said of us, personally: “you are my beloved son or daughter in whom I am well pleased.”
Think for a moment. What would our world be like if every Christian understood deeply in our hearts the truth: I am a beloved son or daughter of God in whom our heavenly Father is well-pleased? If we realized that is our foundational identity? What would the world be like if we realized that our being a child of God is not conditional upon our behavior — that God loves us no matter what we do? If we realize that he loves us so much that he came down from the glory of heaven, to suffer all that we suffer for 33 years before being brutally and unjustly killed, to pay the price for our sins. And that while he did that for all who would believe in and follow him, Jesus would have done it for us, personally, if we would have been the only person he would have saved by doing so. What would the world be like if each of us, in turn, understood that every person we encounter has that same dignity? It would be safe to say that the world would be a radically different place, and the identity confusion of our times would be reduced greatly.
In these coming days let us resolve to pray with Sunday’s Gospel passage, asking God how we can better share, through our words and how we treat those we encounter — in our families, workplaces, schools and even fellow shoppers — the great identity-clarifying news that we are a beloved son or daughter of God, in whom our heavenly Father is well-pleased.
Father Bambenek is the assistant director of the archdiocesan Office for the Renewal of Structures and Office of Synod Evangelization.
Sunday, Aug. 27
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
