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Who am I?

These words are the repeated cry of Jean Valjean, the protagonist of Les Miserables.

Originally a Victor Hugo novel before being immortalized

as an incredibly moving staged musical.

Le Mise opens with Valjean, a French present,

imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving child.

While imprisoned, he appears to have all but lost his identity, not least because he is subject to brutal treatment,

but also because he is now numbered 24601,

before eventually assuming a false name to avoid further imprisonment.

As a result, he continually cries out, Who am I?

Is he indeed now no more than a number, repeatable and replaceable?

Or is he still Jean, an individual of proper name, unrepeatable

and irreplaceable, precisely because he is unique, an individual with dignity and a destiny

to accomplish? This is the question I proposed to answer this evening. Who am I?

And indeed, who are you and also who are we? Though I will attend to the first with focus,

the latter two will hover at the periphery of our focal point at all times.

It is a question at once personal, psychological, ethical, while also possessing profound

theological significance. It is the question that burns in the heart of every human individual

...