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A Message from Fr. Franco -
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Christ, the King
My dear Parishioners,
Do you ever feel like you are one person here and another person over there? Do you sometimes change who you are and how you present yourself depending on where you and who you are with? I suspect we all do.
In some settings and with some people there is integrity and alignment between who I say I am, my words and actions, and the values and truths that govern my life. Everything lines up. I’m honest, whole, and real. I’m comfortable in my own skin.
But in other settings and with other people I change. I get scared or doubt myself and the real me doesn’t show up. Who I am on the outside doesn’t match who I am on the inside. My yes is not yes and my no is not no. My words and actions, or more often my silence and passivity, contradict the values I claim to hold. I
betray my own integrity. I lose myself. Maybe you know what that’s like.
“Are you the king of the Jews?” Pilate asks. It’s like asking, “Who are you?” Pilate wants a yes or no answer. Jesus deepens and changes the direction of Pilate’s question. “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” It’s as if he is asking, “Who’s directing your life? Is it you or someone or something else?” “What have you done?” Pilate asks and Jesus responds, “My kingdom is not from this world.” Jesus moves that question from the outside to the inside.
Our actions and words reveal the values we hold and the values we hold are expressed in what we do and say.
What have you done? Look at what you are doing in your life today. Listen to what you are saying or posting on social media. Consider what you’ve said and done the past year. What values are being revealed, affirmed, or contradicted? What do they have to do with the gospel? Is that who you want to be and how you want to live? And if it’s not, what will you do about it? Jesus never let his identity, action, or truth be determined by where he was or who he was with. Instead, he brought his identity, action, and truth to every place he went, every person he met, and every circumstance he faced. Who he was here is who he was over there. That’s how I want to live, don’t you?
Our struggle for authenticity and integrity is the struggle to be true to God. Every place we go, every person we meet, every circumstance we face holds before us questions of our authenticity and integrity. Who do I say that I am? and Am I really who I say I am?
I wonder what it would take today for you and me to answer that second question, Yes, more than I was yesterday, and live just a bit more comfortably in our own skin.
God bless you.
In Mary Help of Christians,
I remain,
Fr. Franco -
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