Who are we really?

A STORY is said about Alexander the Great who astounded a beggar who only asked for some alms but instead was given the government of five cities. When the beggar expressed his consternation, Alexander just said: “You asked like the man you are. I give like the man I am.”

Well, that’s how the cookie crumbles in this life. Whatever we do or say is determined by the way we are. We understand, see and react to things according to the kind of person we are.

As some Latin adages would have it, “Operare sequitur esse” (our deeds are determined by our being), or “Quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur” (Whatever is received is received according to the manner of the receiver).

The guests in a wedding give gifts to the newly-weds in accordance to their station in life. The millionaire may give a car or a house, while an ordinary housewife may give a set of chinaware. It can happen, though, that the latter gives it more wholeheartedly than the former.

When you just have a little money, you usually give a modest tip to the barber or the waiter. But when you have a thick wallet, you tend to give away a lot more.

Different people react to issues or tackle problems according to the way they are. The intellectual sees things differently from the way a farmer sees them. Same with how believers and unbelievers approach challenges.

This is a law of life that somehow sheds light on the importance and the need of truly enriching our identity, our humanity, because everything else in our life would depend on who we really are.

I suppose we can readily see that we are much more than just a biological creature, or a socio-cultural product, or a political animal or economic phenomenon. For sure, these aspects also go into our identity, but there must still be some deeper underlying basis that holds these aspects together.

Some ideologies have put forward their conception of our nature. The communists tend to see man simply as a material creature, subject only to social, economic, historical, political forces. There is nothing beyond our death.

Atheists and agnostics tend to limit us only to our temporal and earthly dimensions. Hardly anything spiritual and supernatural is considered. In fact, they are averse to such considerations. They claim there is no God, or that God’s existence is doubtful, and therefore we hardly have any relation with God.

We need to enrich our identity because our humanity is not a static matter determined solely by genes or legal status or some social and cultural criteria. Our identity is a dynamic affair that ultimately depends on who we believe we are.

The quest to know our real identity and to bring our humanity to its fullness cannot help but touch on our core beliefs. It has to enter into the question of whether we are created, and if we are created, then how we are related to our Creator. Is it a relation between a person and a thing, or between a person and another person?

The Christian faith tells us a wholistic vision of our humanity, one that covers not only the temporal and earthly, but also the eternal and supernatural. It gives meaning not only to the good events we have like our joys and successes, but also the bad ones like our sufferings and defeats.

The Christian faith tells us that we are persons, not things, since we have intelligence and will. We can know and love. We can enter into a relationship and are conscious of it. More than that, we are expected to keep and strengthen that relationship.

This is a very crucial point to be understood by us—in fact, by all of us as much as possible. Sad to say, we often are remiss of this duty to keep and deepen this relationship. We just let ourselves be led by some feeling or changing perceptions. We seldom go to the root of our identity.

Our Christian faith tells us that not only are we persons, created in the image and likeness of God. We are children of God who with grace are expected to participate intimately in the very life of God. We have been enabled for this dignity, and this potential is made actual by God’s grace and our correspondence to it.

This is the truth of our faith that needs to be processed thoroughly and assimilated deeply so we don’t get lost in the confusing ways of our earthly life.