I heard two young people talking about the perfect selfie. How it is essential to have the right image out there, so everyone can see your “perfect” self. No wrinkle, no blemish. And there of course is an app for that, you download it to your phone, place a certain device over your camera lens, and the perfect selfie would be taken.
Having the perfect image seemed important to Adam and Eve as well. They feared the exposure of their true selves, they feared they would be rejected by God, and so hid themselves. They were hiding from the exposure that their nakedness would cause.
What we need to be certain of is that God knows our true selves, and is pleased and proud of who we are. God looks past the faults to the goodness. We struggle with hiding because of events in our past, we struggle with hiding because of our fears and assumptions, we struggle with a general lack of acceptance of who we are.
God looks and sees us clearly, knows us intimately. God knows and sees every blemish, very fault, and calls us to see the good, and to look past the faults. At our core, we are created to be one with God, that is what Holy Communion is. We are called to be better than we think we are, we are called to goodness that God has placed in us. Our goodness is rooted in Eucharist, our communion with Jesus, who leads us always to our better self.
Imagine the selfie you could take if it were you and Jesus? Imagine what that would be like.