Who am I?

Dear All

A few Sundays back, Fr Ignatius Huan, a visiting priest from Malaysia, who is the spiritual director to novices, gave a sermon on knowing who we are.

If you remember the Jackie Chan movie titled "Who am I?", Fr Huan's topic made me bemused as I thought about the movie's title.

This question of who we are is so important. Without knowing our true identity, we are just lost souls trying to find our direction. It's like going to a directory board which tells you "You are here", a red dot, but without any reference point...it's useless inform as you won't know your orientation at all.

Fr was talking about Jesus temptation in the desert. The devil tempted Jesus 3x. The temptation of turning stone into bread was tempting Jesus to show the world who he is by performing a miracle. Jesus already knows who He is and does not need to prove himself to others.

The second temptation to worship the devil and all earthly possession would be given to Jesus. This is the temptation of worldly pleasures. The danger for us, mere mortals, is when we have a taste of success or become rich, we must remember our humble beginning. That is why those rags to riches tycoons are still so humble and eat at hawker centres is because they never forgot their humble beginnings and what it's like to be poor and hungry. It is very difficult for the next generation after the tycoon to be humble like their forefathers.

The 3rd temptation is taunting Jesus to show the world who He really is...The Son of God...by doing something sensational in front of thousands of people, so that many would believe in Him and in God! Wow, doesn't that sound wonderful? Do a mass miracle and so convert many souls? Jesus does not fall for that trick, to use His favoured position to "show-off". He remains true to who He is...HUMBLE, MEEK and GENTLE, and most importantly, following the will of God, His and our father.

So we are challenged to remember who we are....catholics who are humble and remain faithful to our faith, no matter how poor or rich, a failure or successful, we become.

Love Theresa