I remember distinctly the very first time that I put on the dress green uniform in the final days of Marine Corps boot camp. It was an odd and strange feeling. Looking about at my fellow platoon mates, catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror and going over every detail of the uniform as we prepared for inspections was both an exhilarating and disconcerting feeling. It was hard to feel comfortable, not because of the fit of the uniform, but the idea and reality of the uniform. It marked, especially in the final days a change that was going on in my fellow recruits and me that went beyond the physical and entered into whom we are in the core of our being.

In Marine Corps boot camp the Drill Instructors would call you by every name in the book (and some names that aren’t found in books) except the name Marine. That name was given only after the completion of the long journey of boot camp. But as the days became shorter and the preparation for graduation became closer that uncomfortable feeling of change began to take greater hold: in a few days everything would be different.

It wasn’t different because I had assumed a new name it was different because of the change of heart and mind that had taken place. The forging of the heart and mind through the rigors of the physical, mental and emotional trials strengthened and enlivened the foundation of life that would allow the name to hang upon the body which the dress uniform signified.

The foundation was already there…it was just strengthened and enlivened. This is also part and parcel of our faith life. As we are created in the image and likeness of God, the foundation for human dignity, from conception to natural death, remains in us. It cannot be taken away. In that dignity is the desire for relationship with God and with others, which can never be destroyed or taken away. Sin will often distort this desire for the truth of God’s love but there is and always will be a stronger desire for God.

This is why our struggles of faith are important and necessary. Like boot camp, the struggles strengthen and enliven our faith. They help us to live the virtues and turn away from that which degrades us and seeks to falsify our dignity before God. The headwinds of this world may in many ways be blowing against the truth of the Gospel of Life at this moment but as we walk, in God’s truth and charity, into these winds we know, as Jesus promised, that He will strengthen us and be with us because we walk in faith.

God bless

Fr. Mark