Grounded in truth

On Nov. 2, The Oklahoman featured a story about a student-athlete at one of our Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. On its face, the story was celebrating this student’s athletic success, but it was about more than that. It was exploiting this student’s adolescent struggle with sexual identity – what is technically called gender dysphoria.

This is a growing challenge for some young people, families and schools. It is a phenomenon being fueled, in large part, by social media influencers and a distorted understanding of the human person. 

Our Catholic schools welcome students and families of any faith, or no faith, to join us in educating their children within a fully Catholic environment. That’s who we are and that’s what we do. However, the Catholic Church recognizes that we exist within a pluralistic social environment, and we recognize that this broader social environment is, like each of us individually, deeply wounded and in need of healing and truth. Our Catholic educational mission is grounded in the truth about the human person fully revealed in Jesus Christ.

The Oklahoman article used, and misused, the notion of identity throughout its story. As Catholic Christians, our view of identity begins with a fundamental affirmation: God is the Creator; we are not. We are created beings. More beautiful still, we are created in the image and likeness of God, as male and female. Maleness and femaleness are not interchangeable or malleable. They are complementary and reveal something of the mystery of God. Being created in the image and likeness of God affirms our unique dignity among the entirety of God’s creation. We are created by love and for love. Love is both our origin and our destiny because God is love.

Our identity as daughters and sons of God directs us to our ultimate destination of an eternity with God in heaven. This is a gift extended to us through God’s divine mercy through the self-gift and sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ. 

In Catholic education, we promote an integral view of the human person as the primary key to understanding one’s identity. This Catholic view undergirds all instruction, whatever the subject. We know this Catholic view is not shared by all. Nevertheless, we propose our understanding of this truth as offering the greatest opportunity for human thriving in a confused, chaotic and broken world. 

By first understanding our relationship to God, we can better understand ourselves and therefore our relationship with others. Any other identities we might also embrace are subordinate to this primary identity as beloved children of God, our Creator. Because we are indeed loved by God, we can recognize others, similarly created in the image and likeness of God, as worthy of love.

Any other identity not rooted in this primary understanding is incomplete: black, white, Asian, German, athlete, scholar, single, married, straight or same-sex attracted. None of these can equal or replace our identity and dignity as creatures of God, created in his image out of love. The danger is that we can make any of these self-created identities into an idol before which we bow. When we elevate and exaggerate the significance of these partial identities beyond their proper place, they distort our understanding of the human condition. 

Though no man or woman can fully comprehend truth in all its glory, we can understand enough of it to identify that which is not true. Individuals who deny their God-given identity and seek to change it according to their self-prescribed notion of self, are in fact replacing God with themselves. They are setting up an idol by denying their creaturehood.  

Being a teenager is difficult. Guiding our precious children through periods of anxiety and stress requires compassion, grace and love – all founded on truth. Our Catholic schools welcome and serve all students, but we do so through this Catholic lens. We offer all our students and their families the best of our Catholic understanding, so that each may lead fulfilling lives grounded in truth.