Allow Yourself To Be Loved By God

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The number of people in jail who have Baptism I suspect might be close to eighty percent.  Even in many parishes among those couples who bring their child for Baptism most of them are not married in the Church, more than half and probably close to eighty percent, which does not bode well for the future.  Baptism is not magic that suddenly makes us have the spirit of Christ as this evidence shows us.  There is a real need today to seriously live our Baptism, which is the purpose of the catechesis we do every year for everyone, and especially for couples who are getting married.

If we fall into gossip, or constantly judge others, or have adulterous thoughts we don’t have the spirit of Christ, our Baptism is not being lived.  All the events of Christ becoming man these last few weeks have only one purpose: that we be born again in the Spirit.  That we have this ability to forgive, to reconcile, to not fall constantly into sin then we are living our Baptism seriously.

There is a story in many cultures about a king who falls in love with a commoner and so he leaves his palace and its comforts and becomes like her.   It is impressive to think what he gave up in order to do this:  his riches, his comfortable life, his position and power.  He dresses like people of her class and works like them.  He eventually wins her over.  She falls in love with him and once they marry he reveals who he is.   This is what God does for us.  This is Baptism.  In this sacrament we see this love of a king for someone so far below him.  Like this commoner baptism invites us to let ourselves be loved, by someone immeasurably greater than us.

We heard often from the St. John’s letters this week that it’s not that we love God, but that he loved us, even when we were far from him.   A similar point was made by the original words of Silent Night written by a priest in Austria.  In German the first stanza says: while all are sleeping, they alone are awake.  And then he wrote: The whole power of fatherly love pours itself forth.  How beautiful!  The whole power of God’s love is poured out in this event of his Son becoming man, and he does it so that we may have his Spirit.

Another point to consider on this feast of the Baptism of Christ is that the Jordan River is 1200 feet below sea level.  There is no lower place on earth.  What is God saying to us through this event?   To live our Baptism with true faith, I have to go down.  I need to see my weaknesses and sins, and own them.  Christ became the last one when he lived in Nazareth and especially in his passion, and his descent into hell for three days.  The Father calls him my beloved Son.  When we live our Baptism everyone is ‘my beloved son or daughter.’  Yes, parents all have a preferred one, but God loves each of us like that preferred one.

When we are sick or fed up with the kids or alone or angry heaven is closed to us.  Christ comes to us as a king who is now at our level and says, ‘I love you.’   Allow yourself to be loved.  When we know this from our experience life is totally different; we are happy even in the midst of many problems.   Don’t deny him the chance to love you.  It is not we who love him that is important, but he who loves us.

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