It is difficult to be an authentic human being. It seems to me that the more I try to find and identify myself with various hobbies, activities, and labels, the less people view me as an actual person and the more I am viewed by these labels. In my experience as a card trick enthusiast, the more I perform card tricks, the more people view me as synonymous with the identity of “magician.” The more I talk about mathematics, the more people see me as “nerdy” or “weird.” The more I discuss theology, the more I am thought of as “that religious guy.” In a sense, I become the labels, and the labels become me.
But, in their essence, such labels tend to reduce the view of our personhood instead of expand it. The labels are meant to generalize, and, in their generalization, confine the person to the label that has been attached to them. There have been several occasions upon which people have asked me to perform card tricks and I decline. Shocked by my refusal, I am asked, “But why? You’re the card trick guy.” Such people view my denial as a denial of who I inherently am.
The message of the Christian faith is that there is a new way to be human, and that this way is Christ Himself. “I am the way,” says Jesus to His disciples (John 14:6). “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” says Christ, thereby identifying Himself as the One Who is, the source of existence itself (John 8:58). We have no life apart from Christ. No such life exists.
Such labels cannot contain our personhood, because the humanity of each human being has been linked with God Himself, who condescended to be born in a cave for the salvation of mankind. God loves us. He gave Himself up for us. He gave us His Church for our salvation, to become what we were always meant to be: humans made in His image to become unto His likeness.
This is why the role of the Church in our lives is of infinite importance. The Church is the grace God has granted us in order to learn how to become human, that is, to learn to be like Jesus Christ. By this we come to understand that prayer is not something we do; it is who we are. Confession is not something we do; it is who we are. Receiving Christ’s body and blood inside us is not something we do; it is who we are. We are given Christ’s life inside of us, which transfigures us into gods. Jesus says to the Jews, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’? (John 10:34).
Often we fail to see the reality of our deification through our own forgetfulness, which causes us to stumble and cling to the labels that flatten who we are. But gradually we come to remember our true identity, that is, who God has called us to be. We wake up from the sleep that demolishes our personhood and realize the reality at hand.
“Therefore He says:
‘Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light.’” (Ephesians 5:14).
And, in another place, “Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching [awake].” (Luke 12:37). We must remain awake to become actual human beings.
This is difficult work to maintain. But it is work we have our entire lives to accomplish, growing in faith, hope, and love by the power of God’s uncreated grace and the Holy Spirit working in us. May God grant us the endurance to stay awake and not settle for the lesser labels that restrain us.
