Last week I began a series of columns on how to decide what is right and what is wrong. How do we make good moral decisions, decisions that will make us truly happy because we are doing what we ought to do?
If we are to make the right moral choices we must know (1) who we are, (2) where we are going, and (3) how we hope to get there. This week, I want to discuss the first of these questions: Who are we?
Who we are determines how we ought to act. When we know who we are, then we know how we should act. Many people, however, are not clear about their deepest identity, and in that sense they do not know who they are. And because they do not know who they are, they do not know how to act.
Allow me to make this more concrete. Who are you? How do you view yourself? Do you think of yourself in terms of what do, your work? Do you think of yourself in light of what others think and say about you? Do you view yourself only in terms of your family and friends? You see, there are many ways to view who we are, and how we view ourselves determines the decisions we make.
So what is our most important identity? What truly defines us and help us to make good moral decision? Yes, all of us have a particular kind of work. Yes, all of us belong to particular groups and families that identify who we are. But our most basic identity is the identity God has given us in Jesus Christ. We are God’s creation. We are people who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ. We are people who live and believe in Jesus Christ. In other words, the most important identity we have is the identity we have in relation to God and Christ.
So what is the practical outcome of all this? What difference does this make? If we think about it carefully, it makes all of the difference in the world, and it helps to make the right decisions.
For example, if we are God’s creation, then we ought to act in a way that corresponds to who we are. We ought to act as sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. If we have been redeemed by Jesus Christ, we ought to act as people who are redeemed, as people who are no longer under the power of Sin and the fear of Death. If we are a new creation in Christ, then we ought to live as the new creation we are. Saint Paul puts it is this way in his letter to the Colossians:
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
What Paul is saying here can be summarized in this way: We have been raised up into a new life of grace with Christ; therefore we should act in a way that reflects who we are.
It is not always easy to make the right moral decision. Sometimes we have to choose between two goods. But if we remember who we are in Christ, we will know what we must do. Fr. Matera