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"Discover who we are to God": Bishop Paolo at the Homily for the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus
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January 10, 2023Abu Dhabi.
As you can see this evening in the Church, many priests from our Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia are concelebrating. Today we began our annual pastoral meeting, which will occupy all the priests, consecrated persons, and lay pastoral workers engaged in our area for the next few days. I ask all the faithful to pray for us these days so that our common work may bear fruit for our local Church to the glory of God.
Today we celebrate the solemnity of Jesus' baptism on the banks of the Jordan River. With this episode, we remember the beginning of Jesus' public life, after his birth, infancy, and the time of hiding in Nazareth.
At the Jordan River with baptism, a special event occurs: Jesus immerses himself in the same waters where the people invited by John the Baptist had immersed themselves for a baptism of penance, confessing their sins.
Jesus, who is without sin, immersing himself in the waters, takes our sins upon himself to bring us back into full communion with God through forgiveness and mercy.
At that very moment when Jesus is baptized, a powerful manifestation of his divinity occurs; the Holy Spirit descends on him in the form of a dove and remains on him, and the heavenly Father makes his voice heard.
In the Baptism scene, therefore, we have a manifestation of God as a Trinity of Love; The Son has the Spirit upon him, and the voice of the Father is heard, who publicly acknowledges him as his beloved Son.
This man, Jesus, is truly the Son of the Eternal Father. The Holy Spirit descends and rests upon him; the Spirit of the Father consecrates his humanity for his mission.
In the ancient prophecies of Isaiah, the figure of the prophet and the messiah was mentioned as consecrated men and bearers of the Spirit. Thanks to the gift of the Spirit, the prophet brings the word of God to the world.
But Jesus is not only a bearer of the Word of God, he himself is the Word of the Father. At the same time, Jesus will not only be a bearer of the Spirit but the giver of the Spirit; it is the Spirit of sonship, which he will transmit to the Church and pour out on the whole world.
Along with the manifestation of the Spirit in the Jordan River, the voice of the Father resounds; the Father himself, the creator of the world, turns to Jesus and recognizes him as his Son, the Son of his love, the Son of his predilection: “This is my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on him.”
The Father's words seem like a public assurance given to Jesus. Now that he will have to face his mission dramatically, he will have to fight against the evil one for our salvation. The Father gives him his strong recognition: you are my Son, the beloved.
Let us ask ourselves: isn't this the expression we all want to receive in life? To be recognized for who we are, to be recognized as children, as loved, to feel that someone is pleased with us.
The experience that Jesus has in his baptism in the Jordan also extends to us. Jesus didn't need this recognition since he has always been the eternal Son. This happens for us so we can participate in this experience.
We, too, are people who need to be recognized and reassured. Sometimes, we travel a lifetime looking for someone who recognizes us; how many times do we experience being disappointed afterwards because it seems to us that we are not recognized for who we are in the eyes of others.
We can offer ourselves only provisional and fragile recognitions among human persons, although they are always vital. Think about how a child needs to be recognized by his parents to grow up in harmony with himself. But even this over time is not enough: no one can tell the other who ultimately he is.
Only when we discover who we are to God do we know who we are. And before God, each of us has infinite value. Each is unique, important, and necessary for the good plan God has for the world.
And it is precisely here that we also discover the profoundly human meaning of our baptism: our becoming children of God.
And how beautiful it is when parents who welcome their newborn child want them to be baptized because they ask that their child indeed be a child, a child of God. Parents who wish love for their children should be immersed in the greater love, that of God.
The baptism of Jesus, therefore, also reminds us of our baptism. The heavenly Father also tells us that we are his favourite children, chosen to be a sign of his love in the world; we, too, participate in the gift of the Spirit through the charisms and ministries for the building up of the Church.
Brothers and sisters, let us ask the Lord to be ever more aware of the dignity that comes from our baptism and to experience the joy of being children of God.