10:00 am, June 10, 2009
Fr. Damien, the Guest Master, held a conference this morning at 8:30, and had some great insights on identity and our weaknesses. Here are my notes:
We need to admit that we have weaknesses so that we do not cast aside others with weakness.
Everybody has a defect. If I didn’t have one, I wouldn’t need anyone to help me get rid of it. Without my defects, I wouldn’t know Jesus. If we all admitted we were sinners, we would find Jesus.
I have a choice. To be who I am, or to be something I am not.
I have to acknowledge that I don’t know who I am, and my defects remind me that there is Someone who knows who I am. He knows my name.
No matter what God wanted, Jesus always said, “Yes.†I need to live the same.
All of us think that we are independent. That we have to be good enough. But that is as stupid as trying to eat an apple to be like God.
As long as I am the center of my life, there is no room for Jesus.
Everybody hides a treasure (their defect) from the world because they think they will get respect from others if they keep it hidden. But it is not until we let go of it that we can be free and know true poverty.
The only person you are supposed to impress is God.
Jesus didn’t bring us philosophy, but identity. And this identity is Christ, and cannot be a full reality until I die to myself.