Article October 1, 1990 Issue

Our God-appointed mission

What enables people to be real survivors—to overcome extreme challenges—and to help others too?

Ada Pacilio

One of my favorite comic-strip characters is Mafalda. I recall her saying to her friend Felipe: "Look what it says here: 'Know thyself.' How about that, Felipe?"

"I think it's excellent!" he says. "What's more, from now on, I'll start practicing it! Yes, sir! I won't stop until I come to know myself—to know who I really am!" Then he pauses to wonder, "My goodness! What if I don't like myself?"^{Joaquin Salvador Lavado (Quino), Malfalda, 4 (Buenos Aires: Ediciones de la Flor, 1987).}

This is an important question that concerns all of us. We all want to know ourselves, that is, understand who we really are. In the Old Testament there's a story of a man who did know himself. He loved his identity so much—his spiritual identity as God's child—that he always thought and acted in accordance with it; he was always faithful to it in spite of the severe challenges he had to face. This man was Joseph.

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