Article December 8, 1973 Issue

What Am I?

Janice Koller

The desire to find a satisfying meaning to existence, to understand one's identity and place in the scheme of creation, is normal to most people. Sage and philosopher, rich man and poor, young and old, educated and illiterate, face the common challenge to search for identity, and deep within the heart is the question, Who am I?

As I considered this question one day, I realized that Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, has given its answer in Christian Science. One of her statements in particular recurred to me. It is: "As an active portion of one stupendous whole, goodness identifies man with universal good. Thus may each member of this church rise above the oft-repeated inquiry, What am I? to the scientific response: I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing."^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 165;}

I saw that to understand identity we must understand the essence of its nature. We need to understand what man is before we can know who we really are.

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