The Baptism of the Lord

EXPERIENCING UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7; Acts 10:34-38; Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

Readings for the Baptism of the Lord

Martin Copenhaver, in Whispered in Your Ear, writes: I don’t remember the first time I walked, but it was probably something like this: I stood with my mother; my father was three steps away. I set out, wobbling and stumbling, but made it from one set of arms to the other… on my own. Then perhaps my father lifted me high in the air with great joy as if I were the first in human history to walk! After numerous hugs and exclamations, I must have felt like the most loved, greatest boy in all the world.

After some time, I could walk with more assurance and grace… but I didn’t receive much praise. In fact, I can’t remember the last time someone praised me for walking across a room. So I had to do other things… to get back to that feeling: of being valued, of being picked up with delight, of being affirmed and loved. 

So it goes through life. We don’t have many experiences of unconditional love, and so we try to create conditions which will make people love us. We forget an all-important fact: if people love us for our achievements, it is not love! 

On the feast of the Baptism of the Lord we celebrate the unconditional love of the Father of his beloved Son.  The readings of today affirm this. 

The Gospel ends with the words: “You are my Beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” Since it comes at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, this affirmation is not because of his achievements. The Father says: “I love you.” Period! Total, unconditional love! 

The first reading is the first servant song in Isaiah. God calls, forms and commissions his servant for a specific mission. The emphasis is not on the mission but on God’s love for his chosen.

The Father, who loved and affirmed his Son totally and unconditionally at his baptism, does the same for us, his beloved children at our baptism. God values you and me, not because of our achievements but because we are his beloved. All that you and I must do is to listen to him affirm us!

But human as we are, we need to hear this declaration of love often (Jesus needed to hear that affirmation again at the Transfiguration). So, you and I need to love and affirm one another. This is a concrete way of living out our baptism – by sharing and communicating our experience of God’s love for us.

Am I aware that I am a beloved son/daughter of God? Have I experienced his love for me in a concrete and tangible way? And do I share that experience with others so that they, too, may experience the Father’s love for them?