http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/011313.cfm (Is 42, Ti 2)
My father bragged about me.
He
boasted about me to his friends. To my
uncles and aunts. To the guys at the bar
he liked to frequent – the Town Lounge down on Titus – where Murphs is
now. And not just about me - he would
brag about my siblings, my brothers and sister as well.
More
specifically, my dad boasted about things I had done, things I had
accomplished.
Thing
is, he never bragged about me when I was around. I only knew he was proud of me because I
heard about it from others, who told me what he had said.
And
to my face, he could often be pretty critical.
Subtly or not so subtly communicating to me his expectations of me. Conditions, if you will, on his praise if not
his love.
Now
don’t get me wrong – my dad was a great guy, a great man, and a devoted,
hard-working father. He always put my
mom and us kids ahead of himself, sacrificing himself for his family, to be
sure.
But
like many of his generation, and my generation for that matter, I guess of
every generation, he had trouble telling his kids exactly how he felt. Telling his kids he was proud of them, of
what they accomplished. Even telling his
kids he loved them.
Which
brings me to today’s Gospel, because the words of God the Father, those powerful,
mysterious words coming down out of heaven – “you are my beloved Son; with you
I am well pleased” – these words seem a bit foreign to me, and they might be to
you as well. They’re words I don’t think
I ever heard – words I can’t exactly relate to.
My
first reaction to hearing these words spoken about Jesus is – “of course you’re
well pleased, God, I mean after all Jesus is your Only Begotton Son, Jesus is
perfect, Jesus is God!”
And
then, after thinking some more and meditating on this reading, I was a bit
startled – it occurred to me that Jesus hadn’t DONE anything yet to deserve
this. No accomplishments, no service, no
miracles or healings, no nothing, to deserve this kind of powerful, mysterious
testimony from God the Father. I mean this
all happens not at the end of His earthly ministry, but at the very beginning! It was only after this event that
Jesus had the inspiration, the courage, the power to go forth to preach, and to
heal, and to love.
Thinking
about all this made me realize that maybe I have a faulty notion of love, of
what makes one a beloved Son. A beloved
daughter. And perhaps you do too.
Most
of my life I think I’ve had this idea in my head that somehow I had to earn
love, to earn praise. That I was
worthy of respect and love, not based on who I am, but based on what
I did. Or what I stayed away from
doing.
So maybe that’s why the words of
the Father in today’s Gospel sound a bit foreign to me – “you are my beloved
Son. With you I am well pleased.”
The
Father isn’t saying to Jesus that He is well pleased with what He’s
accomplished. He is saying He’s well
pleased with Him. As a person. As His beloved Son.
And
here’s the thing – I think the Father is saying the same thing to you. And to me.
For just as Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit in this Gospel
scene, so were you and I anointed with the Holy Spirit at our baptisms. For just as Jesus was identified by the
Father as His only Son and sent out on His mission of salvation, so were you
and I called in our baptism to take up that mission.
“You are my beloved
daughter. With you I am well pleased.”
“You are my beloved son. With you I am well pleased.”
He
wants you to know that it isn’t about what you’ve done or haven’t done. He doesn't care how you look, He isn’t focused on your sins, about the ways
you’ve messed up your life, or messed up your family’s life, about all the ways
you wish you could get a do-over. He’s
not dwelling on all the ways we think we’ve let Him down.
Today
he wants you to know, he wants me to know, that you are His beloved
daughter. His beloved Son. That by your baptism you are His child. That He created you and loves you, without
conditions, without attachments. That He reveres you and cherishes you, and holds
you in the palm of His hand.
<pause>
It
seems to me that our Christian journey really only begins when the
unconditional love that God Our Father has for us dawns on us, gets through our
thick skulls, settles into our hearts, seeps into our souls. That, my brothers and sisters, is the beginning
of our Christian journey.
For
when God’s love fills us, when we become convinced of it, when we simply accept
it, our only reaction is great joy and profound gratitude. When we realize that God’s love is His free
gift, that we neither merit it, nor earn it, nor can we ever lose it, our
only reaction then is to love Him back and serve Him in joy and gratitude.
When
God’s love for us fills our lives, then we want out of gratitude to
reject godless ways and worldly desires, and live temperately and justly and
devoutly.
And
when we look around at our brothers and sisters, here in Church and out there
in our community and world, especially the poor and the downtrodden and the
forgotten, we realize that each one of them is God’s beloved son, God’s beloved
daughter. And how can we not want to
hold each of them with respect, with love, and serve them.
Indeed,
when we become convinced of God’s love for us, we realize that the only
right response is to love Him back, to give Him our very lives, our very
selves. In whatever vocation we’re
called to. Indeed the Christian journey
is about our response to God’s love for us, in ever deepening love of God, and
ever deepening commitment of our lives to Him and our neighbor. Culminating on that day when we become
eternally united with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in heaven forever.
<pause>
Well,
in addition to being the end of the Christmas season, today marks the beginning
of a very special week in our Church calendar.
Today marks the beginning of vocation awareness week. A week in which we contemplate and meditate
and pray about and for vocations.
Each
one of us, you and I are called to discern how it is that God invites us to
respond to His wondrous love, what is the unique way in which God calls you and me by our baptisms to give
our lives completely to Him, in gratitude and love.
Many
are called to the vocation of marriage and family life, in which our response
to God’s love is to love one other person for our lifetimes and, God willing,
to co-create with the Lord new human life, to bring new children of God into
the world, to educate them and raise them up in the Faith.
Some
are called to the single life, to chastely and devoutly serve God and our
fellow humankind.
And
some are called to religious life. To
the holy priesthood. The permanent
diaconate. To become consecrated
religious – sisters and brothers. Called
in a unique way to give their lives to the Lord and His Church, His people.
All
of us are called, indeed throughout our lives, to discern what it is that God
is calling us to, calling me to, calling you to, right here and right now.
So
let us pray, today and all this week, that the Father will send the Holy Spirit
to descend on His people and give us wisdom and guidance and right judgment in
discerning His call. To realize His
great love for us and to discern how it is that God desires for us to respond
to that great love. And let us pray that
God will call forth good and holy and worthy servants of His Church and His
people. To go forth, as Jesus did, to
preach and to heal and to love.
In
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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