One of the most important questions in life is the question on identity. We search for who we really are. Each of us wants to know his or her identity as an individual. Cold facts in our curriculum vitae do not satisfy us. Neither do a list of our talents, skills, and traits. We thirst for more knowledge about who we really are. We want to know what makes us different from the person standing next to us and from the rest of humanity.
In Jn 1:19-28, John the Baptist teaches us a very important lesson in our quest for self-understanding. When asked by the priests and Levites, “Who are you?” He replied, “I am a voice in the desert, crying out: Make straight the way of the Lord.” With his response, John tells us how we can truly know the answer to the question “Who am I”: We realize our real identity only in relation to God who created us and gave us our mission in life. Our sense of self grows in direct proportion to our sense of God in our life. We come to know who we truly are by coming to terms with who God really is.
Any self-knowledge that is without knowledge of God is a false sense of self, incomplete self-knowledge to say the least.
As another year begins, let us renew our quest to know God more and more. Only in doing so will we be able to answer the question “Who are you”.
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