Who Are You?

By Leslie Bertucci

“If you are what you should be you will set the world on fire!”

This quote from St. Catherine of Siena has always been one of my favorites.

In my experience with youth ministry as well as with parenting, one of my greatest goals has been to show the kids who they really are, who God created them to be.

But this is easier said than done.

So many people today, especially young people, hang their identity on what they do rather than who they are. Or worse, they base it on other people’s opinions, which are often negative.

To these kids, I just want to speak these lines of a poem I wrote several years ago:

Maybe we all need to hear it again.

Maybe the last time was, I don’t know when.

It just needs to sink in again and again like a song:

We are beautiful, we’re beloved, we belong

To the Father who made us.

We are beautiful, we’re beloved, we belong.

The simple truth is this: Each of us is a beloved child of God. Before we are a mother or father, son or daughter, spouse, student, artist, athlete, gamer, writer, doctor, lawyer, laborer or friend. Our core identity lies in Christ.

As soon as we realize this, we will set the world on fire.

Come Holy Spirit, show us who we really are.