Who am I?

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ( bio - articles - email ) | May 26, 2025

Before his ordination, a priest in the Midwest worked as an airline desk agent. On one occasion, a snowstorm paralyzed the airport. People lined up for reroutes, but it was impossible. He said an unnamed (widely recognized) celebrity lost his patience and demanded, “Do you know who I am? Do you!” The passenger in line behind him dropped his luggage and said, “Oh great. I’m in the middle of a snowstorm trying to get home for Christmas, and now the guy in front of me doesn’t know who he is!

Who am I? Good question. Jesus came into the world to tell us who we are.

Jesus is the Word made Flesh: the Incarnation. The Incarnation elevates our humanity and reconciles us to God. We understand the Incarnation more deeply in the Scriptures, within the Church, and throughout history. The Incarnation carefully guards our distinct individuality. We neither lose our humanity in the divinity nor do we join an esoteric pantheon of gods.

The Incarnation took place when the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, and she conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. On Christmas, the Child of Bethlehem manifests the Incarnation. In Jesus, God and man are reconciled.

Jesus grew in wisdom and strength after He was lost and found in the Temple (cf. Lk. 2:40). As with anyone, the emotional and psychological development of Jesus coincided with His bodily growth. The Incarnation—the reconciliation of God and man—was a work in progress from the moment of His conception in the womb of Mary. “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning.” (Heb. 4:15)

The life and teaching of Jesus was similarly a work in progress respecting human sensibilities. Jesus gradually revealed His divinity in union with His humanity. His mighty deeds prepared us for His claim to divinity: “I and the Father are one.” (Jn.10:30) If we know Jesus in His humanity, we know the Father. And we come to the Father through Jesus: the way, the truth, and the life (cf. Jn. 14:16).

The Cross, apart from the Resurrection, would have torn asunder the unity of God and man (“diabolical” comes from two Greek words dia + ballein—to tear apart). But Good Friday, followed by Easter, defeated the Devil and conquered every threat to our humanity in union with Christ. The suffering humanity of the Cross is inseparable from the glorious divinity of the Resurrection.

We have a chronic tendency to impose our flawed humanity on Jesus. “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, ‘We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’” (Mt. 11:16-17) After the Resurrection, the apostles still did not fully grasp the meaning of Christ’ ministry. Immediately preceding the Ascension, they continued to expect Jesus to dance to their tune: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6)

Absent the Ascension, our reliance on Jesus walking the earth would distort the vision of the Incarnation that faith in Jesus offers for our happiness. With Jesus at our side, why wouldn’t we expect Him to restore the kingdom of Israel, end every war, solve every family altercation, and install our preferred rulers? Why not provide God with a job description that satisfies every impulse of our humanity, good and evil?

Jesus instructs His apostles to live and proclaim the Gospel in faith: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:) In the Spirit, the apostles would continue His work reconciling God and man on God’s terms in the light of the Resurrection. The Ascension and the departure of the visible presence of Jesus is not a sorrowful mystery. The Ascension is a glorious manifestation of the Incarnation that continues with our cooperation as His instruments.

After the Ascension, our encounter with Jesus requires faith and shifts our attention from Jesus walking the earth to our Christian dignity and duties as His disciples in union with Him. Jesus departs to confer the Holy Spirit upon us and puts us to work: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11) Faithful Christians no longer ask, “What will Jesus do?” They ask with faith in the union of God and man, Jesus and His Church, “What would Jesus have me do?”

Years ago, a man called a priest to administer the sacraments to his dying wife. Over many arduous months, he cared for his wife, fed her, and kept her comfortable. Distraught, he asked the priest why God didn’t send her the help she desperately needed. The priest marveled at the man’s selfless generosity and said, “You are mistaken. God indeed sent your wife help. He sent you.”

Pentecost completes the initiation of Mary and the disciples into the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church. In the graces of the Holy Spirit, God and man are reconciled in His Church and sealed by God’s grace. The Holy Spirit—in Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist—brings us to a new and exalted understanding of the faith in the Incarnation, the reconciliation of God and man. With God’s grace, we become partakers of God’s nature and His mission in Jesus. We discover who we are, our destiny, and how to love.

Who am I? St. Athanasius, the defender of Christological orthodoxy, preaching of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, responds: “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God” (On the Incarnation, cf. CCC 460).

Fr. Jerry Pokorsky is a priest of the Diocese of Arlington who has also served as a financial administrator in the Diocese of Lincoln. Trained in business and accounting, he also holds a Master of Divinity and a Master’s in moral theology. Father Pokorsky co-founded both CREDO and Adoremus, two organizations deeply engaged in authentic liturgical renewal. He writes regularly for a number of Catholic websites and magazines. See full bio.

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