And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.' (Luke 3:22b)
In the account of Jesus' baptism from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus was baptized just like all of the other people. Then, "after all" (v. 21) the baptisms, the people's and Jesus', Jesus was praying. As he prayed, "heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove." (v. 21b-22a)
Many of us were baptized as infants, so we don't remember how the Holy Spirit came upon us. But we do have the Sacrament of Confirmation that allows us to focus on the coming of the Holy Spirit into our lives. (But of course, we have experienced the Holy Spirit long before our Confirmation as a young teenager!) In any case, by our baptism, the Holy Spirit dwells in us, empowering us to discover the gifts that God has given to us and to use those gifts to serve God through God's people.
In addition to helping us discover and use our God-given gifts, through our baptism, we experience in a profound way, God's love for us. Just as the Father told Jesus, "You are my beloved Son," God tells each of us, "You are my beloved Son/Daughter." Every moment of every day, God is whispering in our hearts, "I love you...I love you..."
Faith Chat Question: What does it mean to you, how does it make you feel, to be God's "Beloved Son/Daughter"?
Faith Response: Place a bowl of holy water on your prayer/kitchen table. (Most parishes have a holy water dispenser near their baptismal font from which you can fill a small container.) At the end of each day, at dinner or bedtime, invite family members to recall their baptisms by blessing one another with the holy water and the Sign of the Cross on their foreheads. Then give one another hugs and tell one another, "I love you!"
Prayer: Beloved Son of God, help us to live our baptismal call each day of our lives. Amen.
