We Do Not Proclaim Ourselves

​I can recall from my high school chaplaincy days in Laredo, Texas the
classrooms full of posters with inspirational quotes about courage and being
oneself. Christopher Reeve, the actor best known for playing Superman in the
1970s, who was paralyzed from the neck down in an equestrian accident,
deceased in 2004 at age 52, once said, “A hero is an ordinary individual who
finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming
obstacles.” First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (d. 1962) once said, “Remember
always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an
obligation to be one.”
Inspiring words. But for us Christians, there is more. We are not simply called,
as we sometimes hear, to “speak our truth”. We are called to speak the truth,
Jesus Christ. St. Paul, in this Sunday’s second reading (2 Corinthians 4:3-6),
tells us that “We do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as
Lord.”
We are, of course, unique individuals who want to be ourselves, unhindered in a
society where it increasingly seems like we are being judged. We want to be
given room to grow and make mistakes and discover our gifts, and we must, of
course, try to be strong. But we are most ourselves and strongest in Jesus
Christ, in God. A Christian belongs to Christ, in Whom we find the fullness of
happiness and freedom, in Whom we find a safe space, in Whom we no longer
need to pretend to have the courage and strength to conquer the world, through
Whom we find our Creator, the Source of endless love that enables us to lay
down our lives for another. Indeed, the same Saint Paul tells us in Galatians
2:20, “it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I
now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and
gave himself for me.”
Belonging with you,
Dominique+