What zebra print says about ourselves

What do zebra print, beaded necklaces and dancing have in common? Well, you might say a school cultural play. You might also say a traditional ceremony.

And you’d be right because that’s your best judgment from the information that I’ve given you. But it’s not necessarily the best answer…

A lot of young people in our Church today are facing the same obstacle of making a judgment on something without having all the information—but with a much more pressing subject: finding the identity of who they are.

At some stage in our lives we all ask these same questions: “Who am I?” and “How can I live in a way that will bring me true happiness?” I’ve met many young Catholics who are looking to what they see first and most of—celebrities, music, movies and the media—as a model of how they should live.

The real answer that I was looking for in the above story was the Zulu parade which I experienced in New Orleans during the Mardi Gras celebrations in February.

As a South African amidst a city full of Americans, my different accent and culture brought to light that my identity as a son of God is deeper than my family roots and what I do. In the same way that you couldn’t answer my initial question fully without all the information, many young people around us are finding it hard to recognise their true identity as they haven’t got all the information about what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God.

We all have a desire for love, acceptance and community. It’s a part of who we are. We are created to search for something bigger than ourselves. We’ve known that for centuries.

But the full story is deeper than that—we are the image of a God who is love; the image of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit who are in an eternal relationship of love. And so we cannot live without relationship; we cannot live without true love.

Bl Pope John Paul II said in his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, that “man cannot live without love” and he answers these vital questions about our identity, which young people are struggling with in our world today, in his profound teaching on the Theology of the Body (TOB).

We can learn the real identity of who we are by getting to know Christ and the God whose image we are created in as sons and daughters by diving into the Theology of the Body.

I’ve met a whole lot of Catholics both in the United States and in South Africa who are learning their true identity through this message. Dumb Ox Productions, with whom I have trained while in the US, is dynamically spreading the TOB through media, retreats and talks. People like Marie-Anne teBrake in Johannesburg (Foundation for the Person and the Family) and Natasha Couto in Durban have seen amazing fruit by breaking open the TOB with young people.

Have you seen young people around you and in the Church who really know who they are or are they searching for meaning in many different places? Do you agree that understanding our true identity as men and women is the key to true and lasting relationships? How much do you know about the Theology of the Body?