Before you get started, don’t forget to check out this month’s video, available at right and here.
The word “authentic” pops up a lot these days. Out in the general culture, people recognize that integrity is important. We value honesty, even if it comes in the form of brutal confrontation on a reality TV show.
But authenticity goes further than honesty. Actually, it goes deeper than honesty. Authenticity comes out of a person’s core; it’s an expression of who the person truly is.
In this week’s chapter from My Life with the Saints, Fr. Jim Martin tells us about Thomas Merton. You can go to the chapter by clicking here. Merton was a Trappist monk who died not that many years ago. While he is not an official saint in the Catholic Church he’s saintly for many people because of his ability to honestly look at his life, see his humanity and also see God’s grace. His autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, has helped people all over the world learn the meaning of authenticity.
Merton talked about the “true self.” He had learned—sometimes the hard way—that human beings have a way of denying who they truly are. Even though we are corrupted by sin, there remains that core person created by God and loved by God. As we grow in our awareness of God’s love, and as we develop our relationship with God, we become more and more in touch with our truest nature—our most authentic self.
So Christians might think of authenticity as living closely connected to our true self. Authenticity gets past all the versions of ourselves that we try to present to the world—versions that we think will seem intelligent or important or attractive. Authenticity concerns my very specific history and the gifts of personality and ability God placed within me. Authenticity means that I accept who I am as a beloved child of God and that I move freely in the world as that daughter or son—not as some other person I’d rather be.
Exercise for the Week
Spend at least an hour in prayer this week—preferably all at once, but you can divide the time into 2 or 3 prayer sessions. During that hour of prayer, have the courage to ask, “God, please show me my deepest, truest self. Help me to accept that self with gratitude and to love that person. Help me walk in the freedom of authenticity.”
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