Most Reverend Jerome E. Listecki
Archbishop of Milwaukee
 

We often use a particular phrase to describe a confident individual, saying, “He or she is comfortable in their own skin.” It’s used as a compliment, indicating whether a person is at ease with their personal strengths or weaknesses. They are relaxed and confident when engaging others and not influenced by erroneous opinions.

I have met individuals from all walks of life who are comfortable in their own skin: intellectual giants, business leaders, professionals, governmental officials, teachers, housewives and laborers. They are definitely at ease with who they are and what they’re doing.

I would like to add a spiritual sense, especially for people of faith. Consider the phrase, “They know that they are where God wants them to be.” There is little doubt that people of faith seek to be an instrument of God. I just recently viewed a DVD about Father Joseph Walijewski from the Diocese of La Crosse, who lived a life dedicated to the poorest of the poor in Peru and Bolivia. His famous line was, “I am just a pencil in the hand of God.” Fr. Joe was definitely comfortable in his own skin and even in a foreign environment, he was at ease with the people and the place he was serving. He was in the truest sense where God wanted him to be.

For the spiritual person, what is the source of this sense of personal confidence? I was recently rereading a book of the letters of Saint Francis De Sales (“Thy Will Be Done: Letters to Persons in the World,” Sophia Institute Press, 1995). St. Francis was responding to a young woman who was inquiring about giving oneself to God. He wrote to her, “I say to you with all my heart, Adieu, may you ever be ‘for God’ in this mortal life, serving Him faithfully in the pain of carrying the Cross after Him here and in the heavenly life, blessing Him eternally with all the heavenly court. It is the great good of our souls to be ‘for God,’ and the greatest good to be only ‘for God.’” 

Every saint and, I would add, every person who knows that they are where God wants them to be is “for God.” Their life, even if filled with suffering and persecution, is filled with satisfaction and joy because they are “for God.” St. Paul transformed his life with his commitment to Christ and, afterwards, he was beaten, stoned, flogged, shipwrecked, imprisoned and finally beheaded. He lived “for God” and only “for God.”

Saint Isaac Jogues, a Jesuit missionary to North America, a man admitted to the elite places of France, chose to return to the community and natives that nearly killed him the first time by gnawing his fingers to the bone. Now, this second time, he was martyred. He was where God wanted him to be.

I never met St. Paul or St. Isaac Jogues, but I did meet and travel to Santa Cruz, Bolivia and Lurin, Peru with Fr. Joseph Walijewski. I can testify that he was comfortable in his own skin and I have testified for his cause of sanctity. He was where God wanted him to be, drawing God’s love by acting as a pencil in His hand.

We are all saints in the making, opening our lives “for God” and knowing that we are where God wants us to be by following His command to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.        

Note: This blog originally appeared as the July 7, 2015 "Love One Another" email sent to Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Milwaukee by Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki. If you are interested in signing up for these email messages, please click here.