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

​#12thandMass
January 4, 2022
 
This Sunday we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord.  In the gospel passage assigned for this feast, we “hear” the First Person of the Trinity, God the Father, speak of and to the Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son, as “the Beloved”.  This is very moving.  And as incredible as it may seem, the statement also applies to us.  We too are the beloved of the Father. 
 
This tender language is foreshadowed in the first reading (Isaiah 42:1-9): “here is my chosen, in whom my soul delights.”  It reveals that the mystery of God is one of unfathomable intimacy and we are invited to join in this intimacy.  Indeed, in our own Baptism, Jesus introduces us into the Trinitarian life. 
 
The Carmelite nun, Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity (d. 1906), one of my favourites, 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 to go unfinished, the relationships seem only to get more complicated, the loneliness, the bills, the apparent endlessness of COVID, the physical pain that is too great, the unanswered questions...
 
Let yourself be-loved.
 
Yours in Christ,
 
Dominique+
Child-of-God