Young people are pressured to fit in with the right clothes, hair and looks. But as Catholic Christians, we must remember we are made in the image and likeness of God, beautiful on the inside and outside.
From an early age, you have received messages about the gift of your body. Parents and family members take delight in the beauty of an infant who has been made in the very image and likeness of God.
The smallest gesture or giggle is a source of great delight as a little one discovers her fingers and toes and a voice that can make an amazing range of sounds.
When and how does that joy in the gift of a body change? How does that subtle shift take place that has young people questioning or rejecting the very goodness and nature of the body that God gave them?
It is easy to unlearn or forget that early lesson that every one of us is made in the image and likeness of God. How can you rediscover and celebrate your identity as a child of God, beautiful on the inside and outside, recalling that God created you and said that it was "very good"? That's what this Youth Forum is about.
Power Brokers
When she was small, our daughter Joanie would enter our room fully dressed many mornings and ask, "Daddy, how do I look?" She soon knew—and would recite—my answer before I could, saying, "I know, it's most important that I am a child of God and that I am beautiful on the inside." Then she would ask her mom the same question, even though she knew she would receive the same answer.
This simple exchange was our effort to plant a seed deep within Joanie that reminded her of who she is and whose she is. Such awareness can serve you well as many of life's greatest challenges and experiences cause you to grow in your understanding of who you are as a child of God—beautifully made in God's divine image and likeness.
As early as elementary school and for many years following, young people experience great pressure to fit in with the right clothing, hairstyles, body shapes and appearance. There is further pressure to have the right friends, be in the right groups or be invited to the right social events.
The pressure to conform often comes from adolescent peers who appoint themselves as social power brokers. Social power brokers attempt to wield power by exerting their influence over others through mean and bully-type tactics, such as exclusion, ridicule, putdowns and gossip about those who are different from them.
The pain caused to you and your peers by such choices and behaviours affects you in real and hurtful ways. Many innocent young people on the receiving end of efforts by social power brokers find themselves under great pressure to conform or do things that violate who they are, what their family values and how they feel on the inside. The pressure can also cause some young people to get involved in high-risk behaviours such as drinking, drug usage or sexual promiscuity.
Social power brokers are insecure about who they are and strike out at others in order to avoid the hard questions and struggles about who they are and how they feel about themselves. One of the challenges of adolescence is to develop the skills and strategies to effectively deal with social power brokers in ways that help you to be strong and resilient when others try to bully.
I Just Want To Be Me
In athletic programs, schools, relationships and church settings, the goal is to find places and activities where as a young person you can grow and discover your interests, talents and who you are and where you belong.
As Christians we are expected to respect the gift and beauty of the person God made us to be—with the body that God gave us. Equally important, we are expected to respect the gift and beauty of every other person and treat that individual as we would treat God.
Identity: Positive & Negative
Among the many tasks of adolescence is to develop an increasing awareness of who you are, where you belong and what you want to do with your life. One of the unhealthy ways this sorting out takes place is when teens put down others who are different from themselves. This negative identity can take the form of ridicule, as they make fun of groups of which they are not members.
As jokes and derisive remarks are made about your peers who are involved in athletics, band, choir, theatre, cheerleading, computer clubs, academic clubs and other social activities. This negative identity involves putting down others who are in groups that you are not in; therefore, it is an identity built upon what you are not.
As you grow, it is critical that you move toward a positive identity that helps you to know and embrace who you are, where you belong and what you are about. As you grow into a more positive identity, there is little need to put down others for being different than you are.
Many teens understand and work out of this positive identity, thereby building up others, valuing and respecting both their differences and similarities. This sorting out also necessarily involves renegotiating your relationship with your parents and their doing the same with you.
This can cause considerable conflict and arguing on the home front, sometimes leading to your desire to be left alone and given more freedom. At other times, you want parents to be there when you need them. Some parents are excited and supportive to see you grow into a more mature person who can make your own decisions. Others can be threatened by your independence and may attempt to exert more control.
Cultural Lies
Additional challenges you face include powerful messages from media and culture about your body and what it should look like. Among these messages are lies that tell you that your appearance is most important and determines your whole value as a person.
The Christian understanding of the importance and value of every person exposes this lie. The Bible reminds us all that we are made "in the divine image" (Genesis 1:27). "You are precious in my eyes and glorious," is how Isaiah (43:4) describes the Lord's attitude toward his creation.
Scripture reveals that not only are you a child of God, but so is every other person. You must therefore treat yourself and others as you would treat God. The Christian message tells us to be bold enough to believe the Spirit of God in Matthew's Gospel, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (3:17).
Journey of Vast Distances
Learning how to love and accept ourselves and others is the hard work of the Christian life. Poet Ranier Maria Rilke reminds us that such work calls us to vast distances, requiring us "to hearken and to hammer day and night," so that you may discover how to use the love that God has given you.
You join a wonderful community of believers on life's long road of discovery of whom you are called to be. As a child of God, may you know and share God's love and beauty every step of the way.
Taking Care of My Body, My Self
You deal with pressures and stress coming from many directions. Here are a few tips to take care of you and deal with the pressure in a healthy way.
I have been thinking a great deal about my experience at Reconciliation this past Saturday. I felt an intense and unexplainable urge to go and confess my sins when I woke up that morning. I try to go every six weeks or so, but this was no routine visit to the priest for me. I needed to unburden myself of the numerous venial sins I had committed since I last participated in this Sacrament.
Purest Gold: God's Refining Fire in our Lives »
After salvation, many young Christians wonder if there's anything more to their newfound faith than just the security blanket of "being a Christian." Time and time again, God shows himself as a "refiner," and our lives are as gold. God started leading me in this study to understand what He was doing in my life, as well as in the lives of others.
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Saint Josephine Bakhita »
Feast Day: February 8
Patron Saint Of: Sudan
Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born around 1869 in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan. She was a member of the Daju people and her uncle was a tribal chief. Due to her family lineage, she grew up happy and relatively prosperous, saying that as a child, she did not know suffering.
Catholics Must Fast More Intensely This Lent»
The Norbertine Canons of St. Michael's Abbey have created this digital Lenten retreat so that you can journey through this holy season alongside them. If you want to have one of your best Lenten seasons yet, join us in our Lenten Program "The Great Fast" - https://theabbotscircle.com/the-great-fast-join
When Your Faith Is Put to the Test - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon»
Friends, we come now to the Second Sunday of Lent, and we’re on both dangerous and very holy ground with the first reading from the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. The ancient Israelites referred to it as the “Akedah,” which means the “binding”: Abraham binds and is ready to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command.
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