In the Baptism of Our Lord, the voice from heaven declares the newly baptized Jesus to be his Beloved Son, with whom God is “well pleased.” The phrase “well pleased” sounds a little tame to me, like something you’d say if the restaurant that cooked your steak the way you wanted it. If I had to translate this sentence from Luke’s gospel, I’d say, “You are my Son, the Beloved; I see something really, really special in you!”
It is the same for us in each of our own individual baptisms. It is the Spirit which comes upon each of us at baptism which enables us to live Christian lives. And with the Spirit of Love within us, we too can do wonderful things, selfless things, things which enable the unconditional love of God to shine forth through us to others.
For example, a young husband has a crippling, terminal neurological disease. His wife is carrying a baby which this young man may never live to see. So he writes a letter to this unborn child to say something very important that is in his heart. "Your mother is very special," he writes. "Few men know what it is like to receive appreciation for taking their wives out to dinner when it entails what it does for us. It means that she has to dress me, shave me, brush my teeth, comb my hair, wheel me out of the house and down the steps, open the garage and put me in the car, take the pedals off the chair, stand me up, sit me in the seat of the car, twist me around so that I am comfortable, fold the wheelchair, put it in the car, go around to the other side of the car, start it up, back it out, get out of the car, pull the garage door down, get back into the car, drive off to the restaurant. And then, it starts all over again. She gets out of the car, unfolds the wheelchair, opens the door, spins me around, stands me up, seats me in the wheelchair, pushes the pedals out, closes and locks the car, wheels me into the restaurant, then takes the pedals off the wheelchair so I won't be uncomfortable. We sit down to have dinner, and she feeds me throughout the entire meal. And when it's over she pays the bill, pushes the wheelchair out to the car again, and repeats the same routine. And when it's over, finished, with real warmth, she'll say, 'Honey, thank you for taking me out to dinner.' I never quite know what to answer...
If you have ever been the recipient of unconditional love, you know what this young man felt. If you ever get a grasp on all that Christ has done on your behalf, you will understand what it means not to know what to say. You and I are the recipients of an amazing self-giving love. The Lord of all life came into our world and gave his life for us. That is who Christ is and what he has done. He is not simply a good teacher who gave us some insightful lessons about life. He is the Cornerstone that was rejected. He is the Lily of the Valley crushed under the heel of humanity's sins. And because he left his throne and entered our valley, the valley of suffering and pain, he knows our hurt, our disappointment, our fears, our frustrations, our anger.
And how do we know that God knows? Because Christ has walked where we walk. He has experienced what we experience. At Jesus' baptism, we are introduced to Jesus as the Father's Son, with whom the Father is well pleased. Jesus was baptized to show us who he is and to show us how much God loves us. Because we have been baptized, we know who we are. We are children of God.
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that just as Jesus received his commission at his own baptism, we received the Spirit of Love into our lives at our baptism and with that Spirit, we too can do wonderful things, like the wife in the story. When we were baptized, the heavens did not open nor a voice come forth as when our Lord was baptized. However, the Spirit of Love, which we have all received, should lead us to live lives as children of God, so that one day our Father will look at us face to face and say: "You are my beloved child in whom I am well pleased. Enter into the joy of your Master."
