(Check out this video of Henri Nouwen, in whom I am spiritually and theologically indebted)
You are my beloved...with you I am well pleased
I am grateful that my final Gospel reflection is on the Baptism of
Jesus in the Jordan River, a moment that roots Jesus in his identity as the
beloved of God and launches him into his time for prayer and temptation in the
desert and his public ministry. The depth of God’s Word finds us relating with
both Jesus and John. We are like John.
John was not the Messiah, but was set apart by God to prepare the way for the
Lord to come in his time and to preach forgiveness as the path to God. We too
are called to prepare the way for the Lord here in Mill Valley in 2013. In our
families, schools, offices, churches, and world we are called to be prophets of
reconciliation and forgiveness in a broken world and to point people to the
wholeness that is only found in relationship with the God who created us and
loves us into life. As St. Francis reminds us and John models, we are called to
preach the Gospel, when necessary use
words. This should challenge us to live more authentic lives in our actions
and should push us out of our safe or polite comfort zones to be willing to
offer to those in our lives words of forgiveness, comfort, challenge, and a
direct invitation to a relationship with God and participation to Mass.
We are
like Jesus. We too should reflect that, what is spoken of Jesus by God is
spoken to us: You are my beloved…with you
I am well pleased! Each of us has experienced the world and our human life
and relationships as broken. One of our primary spiritual tasks is to claim our
true identity, not of a broken world and history, but of God’s first love for
us. Our identity is rooted in being created by God, being loved into being,
wholly and perfectly by the only love that can be whole and perfect: God’s
love. The Christian life is to claim that identity daily and to share it with
one another. Claiming our true identity cannot be done alone but requires a
community, a faith-family, to walk together, to share the sign of that
belovedness, the self-gift of the Eucharist, and to be strengthened by that
spiritual food to go forth to proclaim our true identity to the world: we are
not random or solely individual, we are the beloved daughters and sons of God.
Gospel Activity
-Do you know you and your family’s baptism anniversary dates? (In
some countries the date of baptism is celebrated as more significant than the
day of birth each year) Look up each
person’s baptism date and make a point to make that day special by reminding
and modeling that they are loved by God!
This is beautiful; thank you.
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