I attended Mass in a parish recently. I was wearing casual dress. I did not preside or concelebrate but sat in the pews among the congregation.
As I was walking out after Mass, one of the parishioners approached me and said sociably, “I just wanted to let you know that you have a double. He looks exactly like you. He’s a priest. A Columban. Fr McInerney. No. Rev Dr McInerney. He’s the spitting image of you.”
Before he could say anything else, I replied, “I am he.” Recognition dawned. We both laughed. He said we had met before and recalled the occasion, which I also remembered. I told him it was lucky he hadn’t said anything derogatory about me before I identified myself! We both laughed some more, chatted briefly and parted amicably.
As I reflected on this very warm and friendly encounter, I thought about identity. We may have doppelgangers, people who look remarkably like us, but we don’t have doubles. Not even identical twins are the same. They begin with the same DNA, but there are slight variations in development, so each twin has his or her own distinct genetic code and besides, each has their own personality. We each have different fingerprints, including identical twins. We are each unique. There is no one else in the world exactly like us - not even throughout all of history. No one is the same. God has made us all different. Our diversity is the fruit of the infinite creativity of God.
And the further wonder is that God loves each of us equally. No one is more loved than another because they have this or that trait. No one is less loved than another because they lack this or that attribute. Each of us is loved exactly as we are, in all our uniqueness. Each of us is loved wholly, completely and infinitely by God.
When we truly appreciate this, then we will have deep respect for all people, Christian, Baha’i, Buddhist, Hindu, Jew, Muslim, Sikh, people of all faiths and worldviews, people of all ethnicities, nationalities and races, all beloved children of God. We will be motivated to build the sort of fraternal relations that God desires for us, all sisters and brothers, living and journeying together, respecting and accepting each other, learning from and supporting each other, loving one another and working together for the common good and for our planetary home.
As I reflected further, I recalled that my response, “I am he”, echoed the words Jesus used to identify himself when he was approached in the Garden of Gethsemane (cf. Jn 18: 5, 6, 8). And I thought: Yes! It is true. Christ is in me. Christ has made his home in me, in you, in each one of us. We are all temples of the Holy Spirit, members of His body, children of the Father. Christ has identified with us, especially the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, in prison cf. Mt 25:44. This vision of God dwelling in each one of us makes all the more urgent the task of building fraternal relations in our societies, of overcoming injustices, of caring for the poor and the vulnerable, of building the Kingdom of God.
When God the Father looks at us, He sees Christ and He loves us as He loves the only begotten Son who shines in our faces. If only we could see ourselves and others as God sees us, made in the image and likeness of God, icons of God, homes of God, then we and our world would be transformed. Gerard Manley Hopkins captures this vision of Christ-in-us in his poetic account of the just person who: Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is - Chríst - for Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not hisTo the Father through the features of men's faces.
Each of us is loved exactly as we are, in all our uniqueness. Each of us is loved wholly, completely and infinitely by God.
Rev Dr Patrick McInerney
Regional Director of Oceania
directoroceania@columban.org.au
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - May 2026
