I celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation during Advent, and something the priest said has stuck with me ever since. It isn't a message that I'd never heard before or that I didn't know to be true. But sometimes God just puts the right words in the right mouth at the right time, and Father Salinitro was truly God's messenger — my own Angel Gabriel — on that day.

As I shared my struggles to live a more faithful life, Father Salinitro reminded me that ultimately the good should overcome the bad because, after all, I was made for Him. I was made for God. I, a sinner who had just shared the darkest parts of myself, was reminded that I am fashioned by the divine for the divine! At that moment, I realized that my problem is sometimes forgetting, and sometimes even doubting, my own goodness. Father Salinitro helped me remember who I really am. As an old Argus poster from the 60's (which I proudly displayed on my dorm room wall in college) proclaimed, "God made me, and God don't make junk!" It may have been bad grammar, but the message holds true over the ages. I am not junk; I am created in God's own image and likeness.

I am beginning to think that I've been looking at myself from the wrong side, especially when I am examining my conscience and preparing for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I usually focus on what's wrong with me, on my "human" condition. I want to start focusing on what is good in me and how to make that goodness shine through more often. I encourage you to do the same. Look at yourself as inherently good — or as Psalm 8 proclaims:

When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
(Psalm 8: 3-5)

Our challenge is to live up to our potential. We can stop responding to sin with the old excuse, "I'm only human!" Instead, we can say, "I am human. I am good. I am going to act out of my goodness." Isn't that part of the Incarnation story that we just celebrated last month? God entered our human condition and showed us how awesome it can be to be fully human.

The verses of Tom Booth's beautiful song Present Moment can help us remember who we are:

May I not dwell on the failures of the past, drowning in sin that you have set free.
May I just be with you and be who I'm meant to be . . .

May I not dream of the glories of the future,
things that may never come to be.
May I just be with you and be who I'm meant to be.

Let us pray in this New Year to be who we are meant to be — children of God, created good:

Creator God, you fashioned me in your own image and likeness. Help me to live up to this wondrous truth. Help me to let your light shine through me. Help me to celebrate the goodness at my core, and to be the person you mean me to be. Let me also help others see their innate goodness as well. Amen! Alleluia!

Related Links:

• Conversion—Being Born Again and Again and Again by Rev. James B. Dunning
• The Incarnation: Why God Wanted to Become Human by Kenneth R. Overberg, SJ

Spirit Compass reflections are developed in partnership
with the Center for Ministry Development.