Who Am I?

A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, June 9th, 2024:
Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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2 Corinthians
​4.13 – 5.1

Brothers and sisters: Just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with Scripture — “I believe, and so I spoke” — we also believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

When I think of self-important people, there’s someone who immediately comes to mind. She never says please or thank you, never thinks to hold the door for others, orders her family and friends around, and loves to make conversations about her and no one else. She drives me crazy! In my worst moments, I find myself wishing someone would knock her down off her pedestal.  
At the same time, I can think of more than a few people who don’t have enough self-importance, those who have confused humility with humiliation. Again, someone immediately comes to mind – a friend who is brilliant, generous, thoughtful, warm, and funny but who constantly struggles with feeling like an imposter, who puts herself down and puts others’ wants ahead of her own needs. No matter how much I try to convince her how great she is, her struggles with self-doubt continue. 
In the Second Reading for this Sunday, Saint Paul writes: “Yes, everything is for your sake.” Frankly, it sounds like the first person I described is far closer to being right than the second! What a miracle this is, that Jesus takes ordinary people like you and me and dies for our sake, defeats death for our sake, builds up an entire church for our sake. God’s love for us is universal – it applies to every person who has ever and will ever live. But it’s also deeply, intensely personal. 
God doesn’t love you in any abstract sort of way. This is not a casual relationship or just a good vibe. You exist because He thought of you and decided the world would be better with you, specifically, in it. We should all hold our heads a little higher – we are not accidents, not merely products of evolution, not simply the children of human parents – we are sons and daughters of the God of the Universe, brothers and sisters of Jesus of Nazareth, the Word become flesh. You matter, and your place in the world is a divine one.
Saint Paul also warns us that this doesn’t mean that our lives will always be easy. There will be hard times, due to our own sins and the sins of others. We live in a fallen world. But we don’t belong to it – we belong to the Kingdom of Heaven. The afflictions that we must suffer through are momentary, even those that afflict us our whole earthly lives. They’re not punishments from God, and He never wants us to suffer, but He can use the suffering we offer Him to help prepare us for the eternal life He has readied for us. 
God’s calling for us is neither the sin of pride nor the debasement of humiliation. We boast not of ourselves but of His grace, His unfathomably generous love that makes everything for our sake. And a gift so lavish simply can’t be kept to ourselves. 


Jenna Young

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