Many times we must come to “end of ourself” before we can begin….How do I know this with certainty?…. “Because I know where I came from and where I am going”

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the Gospel of St John how the confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees are getting more intense…His passion and death is drawing near……”Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." So the Pharisees said to him, "You testify on your own behalf, so your testimony cannot be verified." Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I do testify on my own behalf, my testimony can be verified, because I know where I came from and where I am going.”………This is an interesting comment made by Jesus, he is implying that because the Pharisees do not acknowledge him as the Messiah, they lack an understanding of their own identity…Jesus tells them point blank…”I know where I came from and where I am going”…..This crisis in identity plagues mankind to this very day in varying degrees…..When we do not acknowledge God, we lose sight of our true identity…And this “confusion” of who we really are manifests itself in many ways across our society…..While each of us is born very unique, we are all the same at our core….We were created by God to love him, to serve him and to be with him for all eternity…Each and every person, bar-none, shares this common bond…When this reality is ignored or outright rejected - Humanity suffers from an “identity crisis”…A vacuum is created and like all vacuums, the “space” must be filled with “something”…Our world today is filled with people trying to “fill a hole” within themselves that can only be filled with God - Attempting to fill that “hole” with “something” that ultimately never will satisfy and leads to a dead-end….This is why Jesus addresses the Pharisees in the manner that he did…He calls them out…"I know who I am” - Do you?”

"The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. In verdant pastures he gives me repose; Beside restful waters he leads me; he refreshes my soul."

I am in my mid-fifties….And like all people at this age there have been many chapters in my life….I have friends who are very religious and I also have friends who are not religious at all…..When I was younger, many of my friends chased after women - A lot of them!….And some of my friends had many girlfriends….They would use women and “throw them aside” for another one and this pattern continued over and over again….A few of my friends never left this practice and those who did have found themselves all alone….What they “thought” would satisfy them never did…They went from woman to woman, only to never be able to “satisfy a thirst” they had within themselves…This is just one example of trying to “fill the God-hole” with something that cannot fill it…I have seen this play out in real time with people I know in my life…Allow me to illustrate another example….Mainstream America has normalized homosexual behavior…..We can call it whatever we want….But the behavior itself is not natural, our bodies say otherwise and there is no scientific evidence that exists that proves “you were born this way”….I invite you to search for it…And you will find it does not exist…Why do I bring this up?…I was watching an interview with a middle-aged man who lived an active lifestyle as a homosexual for decades…This man basically said that no matter how much sex he had, the lifestyle never really satisfied him deep down…And now that he was around sixty years old, his gay-lifestyle lead to a “dead end”…His words not mine……So what is the point I am trying to make here?…I just noted two examples of lifestyles that try to “fill the God hole” within the human person and both lifestyles come up empty….The sooner in life we “figure out” that we were created by God…That God loves us…And that God created us for himself…The better your life will be….This reality applies to everyone!….For people who read this and do not “buy-in” to what I just wrote…Just wait and look around you….Old age is around the corner!….And for those who ignore and deny this reality, which I just stated….The good news is - God does not give up you….However, when you follow a "dead-end” for years and years, you usually end up alone…And God will uses this time in a persons life when they are all alone to “figure things out” before its too late - You hope!….As Jesus clearly told the Pharisees today in the Gospel…"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”……One way or the other our world will “come to grips with this reality” and the sooner we do, the better.

“He guides me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side with your rod and your staff that give me courage.”

Today in the Gospel Jesus confronts the Pharisees head on….We can view this confrontation in many ways…One of the ways we can view it is to apply it personally to ourselves…Do we embrace our true identity as a child of God?….There are no substitutes that can satisfy the human heart…Sure, we can “run away” all we want…Chase after “things” all we want…But in the end we will be confronted with ourself….We will reach a “dead-end”…..I have found in my own experience of chasing after “things” early on in my life that that those "things" were simply substitutes for God, when I came to the end of myself and admitted it, it was then that God looked me square in the face and told me point blank…”Joe - Now we can begin”…..This is reality!…Many times we must come to “end of ourself” before we can begin….How do I know this with certainty?…. “Because I know where I came from and where I am going”