{"id":1660,"date":"2011-04-21T10:31:31","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T16:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/?p=1660"},"modified":"2011-09-07T22:34:08","modified_gmt":"2011-09-08T04:34:08","slug":"why-youre-not-fully-yourself-and-how-you-can-become-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/21\/why-youre-not-fully-yourself-and-how-you-can-become-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You’re Not Fully Yourself and How You Can Become More"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Are you who you think you\u00a0should be?<\/p>\n

Perhaps you’re restless and unfulfilled, searching for your place in\u00a0the world?<\/p>\n

Imagine the perfect you. That vision of yourself minus all those annoying faults that drive you crazy.<\/p>\n

If you want to be more yourself, get closer to God.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trista’s journey closer<\/h2>\n

My blogging friend Trista (go\u00a0Bright Maidens<\/a>! Yeah!)\u00a0wrote a post recently called “Becoming Myself By Getting Closer to Him<\/a>.” It’s a story of her coming back to God after straying during high school.<\/p>\n

This part\u00a0really struck me:<\/p>\n

Through prayer and my friend’s probing, I realized I missed God. <\/strong>I missed seeing the world through lenses of love.\u00a0 On my own, I was petty, bored, cruel, and easily disheartened.\u00a0 With God challenging me to love and grow, my world became\u00a0“broad and light, not boring but filled with infinite surprises” as Pope Benedict XVI said it would.<\/p>\n

. \u00a0. \u00a0. \u00a0. \u00a0. \u00a0. \u00a0. \u00a0. \u00a0. \u00a0. \u00a0.<\/p>\n

“You seem different,” a friend told me that summer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

I smiled and shrugged.\u00a0 “Nah, just more myself.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

I’m always saying this! Union with God makes you more of who you’re created to be because sin limits you<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How sin limits you<\/h2>\n

Sin is damaging–your own sin and the sin of others against you.<\/p>\n

The human person is made to be expansive and generous, building up others through relationship and a gift of self. Sin closes you in on yourself. <\/strong>It makes you more self-seeking, self-interested and bitter.<\/p>\n

The sins of others against you causes pain. You put up walls for fear of getting hurt.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pretty soon, there’s places in your personality you just don’t want to go. The accumulation of walls becomes pretty limiting.<\/p>\n

How Christ frees you<\/h2>\n

But God can heal these wounds<\/a> <\/strong>like no one else. His power, his life flowing in your heart can change you, make you more expansive and giving again. Make you impervious to the damage of the world and sin.<\/p>\n

The result? Freedom!<\/strong><\/p>\n

You become free to flourish to the full extent of your God given personality and gifts. You are free to explore all your talents and abilities. To become who you were truly meant to be.<\/p>\n

Catechetical Takeaway<\/h2>\n

You were created in the image of God, to be like him. Jesus is that model of what that looks like.<\/p>\n

“He [Jesus] Who is ‘the image of the invisible God’ (Col. 1:15), is Himself the perfect man. To the sons of Adam He restores the divine likeness which had been disfigured from the first sin onward” (Gaudium et Spes 22).<\/p>\n

Sin limits you. Union with Jesus changes you<\/a> to think and act more like him. And, thus to become more who you were created to be.<\/p>\n

If you want to be more yourself, get closer to God.<\/p>\n