Some years ago, I was visiting my sister, and my nephew also happened to be there with his family. He and I were deep in conversation when his five year-old came up to show him a big picture that he had drawn. “Look, Daddy this what I’ve done.” My nephew gently lowered the picture and smiled. “But look, this is what I’ve done” his son insisted, raising up the picture again even higher. My nephew gently lowered his son’s arms and smiled. Slightly more irritated my great nephew raised the picture even higher and said: “Don’t you like what I’ve done?” His father gently lowered his son arms and said: “Yes, but I love your face much more. I want to see you, I love who you are not what you do!”
The many voices that surround us whether on social media, friends, even family, give us the crazy message that we are respected, loved and admired for what we do and what we produce. The truth of the Feast of the Baptism reminds us that the Father loves us, and he loves us for who we are: “You are my beloved in whom I am well pleased” This is not a message for Jesus alone, but for each of us who are children of the father’s heart. Jesus entered our world, our history, our time and space not simply to visit but to do battle. The warfare that Isaiah spoke of in the first reading was a battle for our minds and hearts, because we have been captured by the father of lies. We’ve swallowed his lie.
Because of the crazy things we think, we behave in even more crazy and dysfunctional ways. Because success, achievement, reaching our personal potential have been hijacked into how we perform, as if that gives us genuine and lasting satisfaction, we end up performing and feeling empty. The growth in loneliness means we look for things to fill a gap, we become addicted to social media, food, drink, casual relationships, pornography, and achievement. Anything to numb the feeling of not being seen, loved, or wanted. The feast of the baptism of Jesus, celebrated as it is in this Jubilee Year of Hope reminds us that there is an even crazier truth, the truth of God’s crazy unconditional love.
This Christmas season, that comes to an end with this celebration of the Baptism of Jesus, reveals that you and I have hope not because of wishful thinking or adopting a positive attitude to life, we have hope because God has entered our world and transformed our minds. He longs to show us a different way to see, think and relate. Tik Tok, influencers, mind games or the countless futile ways we seek to enhance our self-esteem will not have any lasting effect. We need a healing of the way we perceive ourselves, our world, our relationships with others and our ultimate purpose. And the only way this will come about, and you will not believe me, but it’s true, is when we allow ourselves to be seen by God the Father, when we hear his good news, “You are my beloved in whom I am well pleased.”
My nephew taught me a powerful lesson in the simple and loving way he sought to teach his son that no matter what; his son’s worth and value would never come from what he did, but from who he was. My nephew wanted to look into his son’s face, not just admire what he produced. God has the same desire and took the risk of becoming like us so that we could become like him. This is what makes us pilgrims of hope, when we are healed in our perspectives eternally. When we see as God sees. When we experience love as he longs to give it.
Abbot Robert Igo, OSB
Ampleforth College Mass on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, 12 January 2025
