I don’t have any children of my own, but I’m sure all good fathers and mothers are delighted when their children are happy and successful. Isn’t it also true that most children want to please their parents and to give them pride and happiness? Most of us can probably remember a moment when our own parents expressed great satisfaction because we excelled in academics, sports, the arts, and/or with any of life’s challenges and opportunities. I’m sure those of you who are parents can relate to this idea as well.
Although not exactly the same thing, the Gospel tells us that God the Father in heaven expressed great pleasure with Jesus after he received the Baptism of John. Luke wrote: “And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased’” (see Luke 3:22b). Exactly why was the Father so pleased? I think the answer to this has everything to do with the great humility and unity Jesus demonstrated by being baptized by John. It seems to me that by receiving baptism Jesus “set the tone” for the ministry for which he was about to begin. Certainly he did not need to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins that John had been preaching! But Jesus did want to show to others that he was one of them–and that in being fully human he too should do as they had done. Surely this was characteristic of the way he lived out all of his ministry and service to others.
Jesus was always “a man of the people” and “a humble servant of the needy.” This is exactly what God the Father had sent him to be. It seems very pertinent to me then that he would launch his public career by humbling himself to receive John’s baptism at the River Jordan.
We believe that through our own baptism, we have died to sin, and through it we also share in the promise of new life. But here, during our mortal lives, we are also called to follow the example of Jesus in all that we do. As he “humbled himself to share in our humanity,” so too must we believe that we can now “share in his divinity” (cf. 2 Peter 1:3-4). John the Baptist promised that Jesus would “baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire” (see Luke 3:16). By this, I believe he meant that Christians would be given all the power they would need to live out their baptismal promises, and this is exactly how they would “share in his divinity.”
This requires us to serve others just as Jesus has done. Isn’t this “the Holy Spirit and fire” about which John spoke? And so, because we are baptized Christians, we are obliged to follow the example of Jesus and to serve those among us who are most needy. On this point, the idea of forgiving sinners, sharing bread with the hungry, healing the sick, as well as the other “works of mercy” and the like come to my mind.
When we do such things, then we too will please our Father in heaven, and he will say to each one of us “you are my beloved Child, and with you I am well pleased.” This is something much greater than the feelings children have when they give joy their parents or the delight such parents have when their children are happy and successful, but certainly there are similarities.
May each one of us please our Father in heaven by the way that we live out our baptismal promises and by the manner in which we fulfill the demands of our Christian lives!
Praise God! Friar Timothy
Find me on Facebook by clicking on the following link: http://www.facebook.com/frayteo
No comments:
Post a Comment