“This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased”: the Baptism of Jesus

That the First Person of the Trinity, God the Father, would speak of and to the Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son, as “the Beloved” is very moving. The language, of course, is bi-directional, if you will: towards the Father and towards us. Jesus is the Beloved of the Father and our Beloved.

The Father adopts the language of the lovers in the Song of Songs, suggesting that the mystery of God is one of unfathomable intimacy, and that we are invited to join. Jesus introduces us into the Trin-itarian life. As the Carmelite nun, Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity (+1906), writes in a poem that she composed for Christmas of 1901:

He comes to reveal the mystery,
To share all of the Father's secrets
To lead from glory to glory
Even unto the bosom of the Trinity.

Ponder this and surrender to the Lord with a desire for this—especially when things get rough: the projects seem always beyond finishing, the relationship only gets more complicated, the bill or the heartache or the physical pain is too great...

Again, Blessed Elizabeth leads the way in hope.
From a poem she composed for the 7th anniversary of her First Communion:

When Jesus made in me His dwelling place,
When God took possession of my heart,
So well that since that hour,
Since that mysterious colloquy,
That divine and delicious meeting,
I have aspired to nothing else but to give my life
In order to return a bit of His great love
To the Beloved of the Eucharist
Who reposes in my feeble heart, Inundating it with all of his favors.

Yours in the Trinity,
Fr. Dominique