Being Uniquely Ourselves

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
- T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”

This Sunday’s lighting of the first advent wreath candle accompanies the beginning of a new liturgical year. There won’t be a countdown or confetti, no parties or Champagne. Rather, we enter a solemn season. During this time the Church calls the faithful to prepare themselves to celebrate the anniversary of our Lord’s coming into the world. It is a time for each Catholic to resolve to make their souls fitting abodes for the coming of Christ in the Eucharist and through grace. It is a time for each to resolve to be ready for Christ’s coming as judge, both at death and at the end of the world. In essence, it is a time for the faithful to reflect on what is required to live a holy and saintly life and resolve to make the necessary changes.

Yet sanctity can not be found in recreating ourselves. We have been wonderfully made and our full potential can only be realized by reshaping ourselves to God’s image. As that image is Christ, who took on the form of man to heal it, we must embrace our individual God-given natures and strive to improve them. Thus, determining how to grow spiritually requires us to recognize and cultivate our unique strengths and characteristics.

When I first began law school I continuously found myself confessing the same type of sin to my spiritual director. When I queried him as to why he thought I was persistently facing this particular struggle he replied by asking me if I knew what the greatest saints have in common. When I stumbled to respond he looked at me and said: “The greatest saints are those that are most uniquely themselves.”

Both our greatest spiritual struggles and our paths to salvation lie in what makes us most uniquely ourselves. The challenge is for each of us is to recognize the passions which form the quintessence of our nature and then divert them away from sin and direct them towards God’s greater glory.

As God places unique passions within each one of us, your spiritual journey will not necessarily resemble that of your associates any more than St. Joseph’s resembled St. Peter’s or St. Pio of Pietrelcina’s resembled St. Bernadette’s. Each of us must walk a different path to the same destination:

A brother questioned an old man saying, “What good work should I do so that I may live?” The old man said, “God knows what is good. I have heard it said that one of the Fathers asked Abba Nisterus the Great, the friend of Abba Anthony, and said to him, “What good work is there that I could do?” He said to him, “Are not all actions equal? Scripture says that Abraham was hospitable and God was with him. David was humble, and God was with him. Elias loved interior peace and God was with him. So, do whatever you see your soul desires according to God and guard your heart.”

God has placed unique passions within your heart and given you a unique role to play in salvific history. May your new year’s resolution be to acknowledge those passions and gifts and ask Him to direct them toward His greater glory so that “He will make straight your paths.” Have a blessed and holy new year!

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I will begin praying a St. Jude Novena this Sunday (for a special intention, of course!). Please feel free to join me!: http://www.prayerbook.com/Novenas/judenove.htm