Our true identity

Driving from place to place often finds me listening to my favorite radio station. Its mellow music relaxes me, disengaging my mind from the pressures of work and allowing it to go where it pleases.

With eyes, hands and legs attentive to things on the road, and music playing in the background, I indulge in some lateral thinking as one part of my mind travels here and there, often soaring high to get a bird's-eye view of things, trying to notice changes in the macro world, or otherwise plunging deep into a certain point, analyzing details and other subtleties.

It also allows me to go into meditative mode, praying for persons and different intentions and concerns, or chewing on some theological insights. But the music should somehow be there to keep me alert in my driving.

It is actually very seldom that I pay close attention to the songs unless something strikes me. But recently I was struck by the Boyzone song, No Matter What. It hit me as kind of playful and teasing with their brand of boyish bravado, so I tried to figure out the lyrics.

It is definitely a love song, with a setting that I imagine can be very irresistible to young people who like to feel good, swoon and fly to fantasy land. It is got ardor played out in classy, cool self-confidence.

There is, of course, a lot of poetic license involved here, and so I thought it should not be taken too seriously. The youth are entitled to some poetic illusions if only to get them going rather than idle and stagnant.

There was just one line or two that grabbed my attention.

I felt that if misunderstood, the ideas presented in catchy tune can be dangerous. We all know that nowadays, poison is often offered sweet and attractive, knocking us down without us knowing what hit us.

After expressing a series of no-matter-what's, reinforcing an I-don't-care attitude, the singer-lover asserts that what he believes is simply true and that he cannot be what he is not, typical lover's language, forceful, oozing with self-confidence.

But the song provoked me into serious thinking. What he is saying is that no one and nothing can force him to think, say or do what he thinks and believes is true. There was no mention of the basis or reference of his thinking and belief. Everything seems to start and end with him and his idea of love. He is answerable to no one except to his love.

I immediately thought this was a case of extreme and invincible subjectivism that, I am afraid, is becoming a trend around.

And so I felt that we need to be clear about who and what we really are.

This is a crucial matter that should not be taken for granted. We just cannot limit our identity to our physical or personal appearance, or our biological and genetic constitution, and much less to our feelings and passions alone.

Our identity is not only a matter of having a name, with such and such family background. Neither is it about our legal, professional, social or economic status alone. Our true identity goes much deeper than all these aspects.

The very foundation of our identity is that we are all creatures of God, created in his image and likeness. God is at the very center of our identity. It is this radical basis of our identity that holds everything else about our identity together, whether it is our physical attributes or our biological, emotional, psychological properties, etc.

It is this radical basis of our identity that would `make sure that we have a complete, not partial, understanding of ourselves.

On it depends how we all ought to think, say or act properly. It indicates to us what is universally good, true and proper to all of us. As such, it is the ultimate basis of our unity in spite of the many legitimate differences we can have among ourselves.

We need to little by little live out this radicalness and fullness of our identity. Such effort, which obviously will take our whole lifetime, would unravel to us the real beauty and dignity of our true identity.

The growing awareness of our true identity will give us a daily and generous dose of joy and peace, knowing that, no matter what, God is our father. He will always be around for us.

The growing awareness of our true identity will also remind us of our duties toward God, something that we should try our best to fulfil, since they are very crucial.

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