As much as we do good things out of love for others, it is always refreshing and energizing to know we have made a positive difference.  We don’t go around looking to be thought of as special, but how life giving and uplifting it is when others tell us how special we are to them.  Today we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.  Jesus joined with all the others who went to listen to John the Baptist and receive John’s baptism of repentance.  Jesus had no need to be baptized by John, but his union with all those who were seeking God through John fulfilled what John was doing.  Jesus is the one John prepared the way for.  John the Baptist was the final prophet who prepared the way for Jesus.  When Jesus was baptized by John the gospel tells us, “After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”  Jesus will now begin his public ministry of preaching, healing and touching those who come to him with God’s love.  As Jesus begins he and others hear the voice of God the Father - You are my beloved Son - You are infinitely precious to me.

Whenever I celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism I am inspired and encouraged by the joy of all present. If the little children were able to perceive what was happening, they would know how loved and special they are to their family and friends. All of us who are baptized have gone through that experience. We were and are special to our family and friends. And even though there is no voice from heaven proclaiming us beloved, we are surely God’s beloved sons and daughters. Our life and presence in the world adds to the beauty and specialness of all creation. Why else would God come in the person of Jesus and invite us to share in his life, to be part of who he is in this world and forever in heaven.

At times we can be so absorbed in what we are doing or what we are thinking, that God is really not in the picture.  Being God’s beloved sons and daughters is why we were created in the first place.  It is our life in God and God’s life in us that makes us fully alive.  In his book, The Wisdom of Tenderness Brennan Manning says, “Imagination focused on Jesus and anchored in his Word liberates us from the tyranny of the existing arrangement; unglues us from the stuckness of the status quo; unlocks closed doors so that we can look anew at Torah, Christ, Church, and cosmos; implies that I can be more that I am at any given moment; and promises that the epitaph on my tombstone will read more than, “He muttered his prayers, mowed his lawn and lost a thousand golf balls.”  How good it is to rise above routine and automatic reactions, to see the good in ourselves, one another and God.  It enables us to see how special we truly are to God and how special God is to us.  Coupled with that is the recognition of how special others are to us and we are to others.

Our union with God opens our minds and hearts to see his presence and hand in all we are, all we say and all we do.  Others love us not because we keep the rules, which are surely important, but because we act out of generous, patient, kind, gentle, compassionate hearts.  Later in the chapter I quoted above from Manning’s book he says, “Instead of a light volley of divine love followed by a heavy volley of rule keeping, Jesus’ love for the unlovely must pierce the heart of every Christian.”  Our specialness to God does not isolate and protect us, but immerses us willingly, joyfully and hopefully in the messiness of life.  It raises us up to the mind and consciousness of Jesus.  We see what he sees, hear what he hears, and reach out to those he loves.  Manning says, “Your faithfulness will be measured by your willingness to go where there’s brokenness, loneliness, and human need.  What are you to draw from the life of the Master?  The knowledge that love and mercy are the most powerful forces on earth.”  Our experience has shown us again and again, the love we receive and the love we give bring the fullness of life where we find true freedom, joy and God’s Spirit.  How else did Jesus embrace the cross and come back to share his new life with us.  We are that special to God!

Father Walden