How
important is our baptism! In fact, for us as Christians, the most important,
rivaled only by the day of our death.
Our
birthday is the day we all have memorized. And for good reason. It is a way of
honoring our earthly life, even though we exist 9mos before that.
But
even more important is our eternal, which begins in our hearts and souls at the
moment of our baptism. So learn it and celebrate it. It gives you another
reason to party and have cake or something else you like.
I
learned my own day during seminary years. 2 wks after birth. A pagan for only a
fortnight before my parents gave the blessing of baptism.
Baptismal
Identity – fundamental to understanding ourselves.
So
many false claims to our identity:“I am (a) ___________ (person).” That can have many
different categories: Political. Religious.
Race. Social Class. Occupation. Hobbies. Past mistakes. Viewpoints of reality. Etc.
etc.
We
need to be careful about how we say that kind of stuff. We can allow these
worksd to have power over us, and it isn’t a good thing to wrap up our identity
in smaller less important things; and even worse in half-truths, which of
course means they are half-lies or half-errors. If we let those things form our
identity, it affects how we paint the picture of our past, how we live in the
present, and where we are headed in the future.
Before
all of these false claims to our identity, we have a fundamental identity from
our creator, and one that is destined toward the new life of Baptism.
CCC 364 The human body
shares in the dignity of "the image of God": it is a human body
precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human
person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the
Spirit:232
366 The Church teaches that every
spiritual soul is created immediately by God - it is not "produced"
by the parents - and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it
separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the
final Resurrection.235
This identity we have from creation. All
of us, baptized or not, have this. But for us as Christians our identity goes
even deeper.
“I
am …an adopted son or daughter of the living God.”
This
statement ties our identity up with our relationship to the Father. And so it
entails an important question for us:
HOW
DOES GOD LOOK AT YOU? (What do you think God thinks when He looks at you???)
So many times we get our religion wrong because we get this fundamental
question wrong.
One of the things that ends up affecting us Christians more than
anything else is how we would answer this simple question: “What does God think
when He looks at you?” This really ends up being a strong driving force in our
life.
I was blessed by God to have a mother and father who loved me even
when I was not perfect, who would love me enough to not let me sit in my
imperfection, affirming my sins or character flaws, but still loving me in
spite of them and helping me to grow from them.
Perhaps you didn’t get that same experience. Perhaps adults or
even peers in your life seriously damaged that self-image in one way or
another. And so instead of seeing the truth of how God thinks of us, we live
in a mistaken sense of How we think God looks of us and
thinks of us.
That can often end up being very different and very problematic. Think
of the story of the prodigal son: he had a very different picture in his head
of what his father was thinking, of what he would do if/when he returned. This
was so much less than what was actually in that father’s heart. A child may be
ashamed of their mistakes when their parents punish them, but the parents still
gaze upon them with a deep love. HOW DO YOU THINK OF GOD? WHAT BAD IMAGES OF
AUTHORITY HAVE CORRUPTED YOUR IDEA OF GOD’S LOVE FOR YOU?
If you imagine God like a harsh sports coach or a mean teacher or
a demanding parent or any other traumatic experiences you have had in your life…
then you’re gonna live in fear of upsetting Him, of failing Him, of drawing
close and being vulnerable with Him, of trusting Him with your entire self.
The truth is this brothers and sisters: God doesn’t think we are
bad or evil; He doesn’t think we are damaged goods; He doesn’t define us by our
mistakes, our failures, or our sins. Our baptismal identity should help us to
remember that. When God looks at us, he sees a beloved son or daughter,
configured to Christ Jesus, the one over
whom He spoke those works: “You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased.”
God
loves you. And loves you too much to let you stay a mess, inasmuch as you are a
mess (in honesty we must all admit we are not able to save ourselves – we sabotage
our happiness in so many ways again and again).
God loves you too much to let you stay there. That is why in this
Christmas season, ending today, we celebrate the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus,
who comes to identify Himself with our sinfulness, receiving the baptism of repentance
given by John the Baptist – so that He can redeem our fallen nature.
“What does God think when He looks at you?” If you don’t see Him
gazing upon you with love, speaking over you these words “You are my beloved,” then
you have the wrong image. Ask the Lord to help heal that and transform it, so
you can know the freedom of the sons of God, who sings over you at every
moment.
