Photo: Fresco of Epiphany (Baptism) at Mount Tabor
When we know whose we are, we know who we are.
Greetings and blessings to all of you.
We are coming to end of our journey through this Lenten season. Thanks for joining me over these past weeks.
We’ve spent the last five weeks dispelling these 5 lies that we often buy into.
1) I am what I have. 2) I am what I do.
3) I am what other people say or think of me. 4) I am nothing more than my worst moment.
5) I am nothing less than my best moment.
They can be powerful and convincing. They often get reinforced and affirmed by people around us without us realizing it. They can easily become our identity – how we define ourselves. But living by them, as we know, brings about stress, anxiety, pain, disappointments, regret and a whole lot of unnecessary sadness. This is not the Lord’s will for any of us.
The Lord’s will for each of us is that we live our true identity as beloved sons and daughters, created in God’s image and likeness.
We are defined by God’s grace. As I said last week, our truest identity isn’t something we create or build ourselves. It’s a gift we receive whereby we become adopted children of God – beloved sons and daughters, partakers of God’s divine nature.
The Sacrament of baptism
We are given a new life in Christ, becoming co-heirs with him and a temple of the Holy Spirit. This is what happens in the Sacrament of Baptism. This is what the catechumens are looking forward to in coming into the Church on Holy Saturday night. Please pray for them, that they will embrace their new identity.
Pope St. John 23 was once asked, “What was the most wonderful day of your life? When you were made priest, or a bishop? When you were elected Pope?” He answered without a pause, “The most wonderful day of my life was the day of my baptism, for on that day I belonged to Christ and his Church.”
Baptism is the great sacrament of belonging and of identity. When we know who we belong to, we know who we are.
For Jesus, his baptism was supremely the moment where he learned his deepest identity, when he learned to whom he belonged – when he heard the words “This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
At Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit comes down upon Jesus, the Father expresses his delight in Jesus, but most importantly, Jesus’ essential identity is proclaimed – this is my Son. Remaining faithful to his identity as Son of God would ultimately lead Jesus to his death for us.
Your truest identity
Jesus’ baptism was about belonging and about identity. And that is true about our baptism. When we know whose we are, we know who we are. In that wonderful moment in the sacrament of Baptism, when the sign of the cross was marked on our forehead, we were marked as Christ’s own forever.” In that moment we belong to Christ. That is our truest identity – and it is your truest identity. You are Christ’s own forever! Your true identity is ONLY in him.
That has the power to set us free. No longer do we have to try to create an identity for ourselves. No longer do we have to live those lies. Nor do we need to look for our value in things or from others. Nor do we have to try to earn God’s love.
We belong to God, and God already loves us more than we can imagine. Our challenge is to become who we already are! So often we find it hard to accept and celebrate and truly embrace that unique person that God created us to be. So often we spend time wishing we were someone or something else.
The most defining moment in your life
Over the course of this next week, as we prepare for the celebration of Easter, take time and contemplate the gift of your baptism, whereby you were given your deepest identity in Christ Jesus. It was the most defining moment in your life and should be celebrated as such, at least on par with your birthday. Have a birthday party on the anniversary of your baptism, celebrating your birth into the life of God’s kingdom.
In prayer, return to the Baptism of Jesus – Matthew 3:13-17 – and allow the Lord to speak to your heart saying to you that you are his beloved son or beloved daughter. Let that sink in!
During this Holy Week, in prayer, meditate on one of the passion stories – the greatest act of love in human history, the moment when the Lord opened the gates of heaven for us.
Thank you for being with me over these last six weeks. I hope that what has been shared has been beneficial to all of you – if nothing more, than to remind you of who you really are.
Have a blessed Holy Week and Easter.
Bishop Robert Gruss