Authentic Identification

Excerpt from the Gospel, Luke 3: 21-22
Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’


Excerpt from the second reading, Titus 3: 4-7
But when the goodness and loving-kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Here’s a good question for the beginning of the New Year:

Who are you?

Can you answer this question without referring to any other person in your life or to any of your life circumstances or past experiences? Can you say who you are without alluding to your spouse, your children, your job, your vocation, your role(s) in the church or community or any of your gifts, skills or past achievements and failures? Can you find the answer with no absolutely no reference to present circumstances or future possibilities, good or bad?

Tough question, huh? Yet, it is the single most important question in the spiritual life and the one question most people have huge difficulty answering. We learn to measure and identify ourselves according to the expectations of the world, our families, the church community, our employers and our peers. We learn to judge ourselves according to how well we live up to or fail to live up to all these subtle but strong assumptions and most people spend their lives grappling constantly with the expectations of others, resenting them, fearing them and feeling trapped or condemned by them. Everyone I speak to is struggling with who they really are, whether they know that’s the essential question or not. Everyone yearns for the answer.

You will have noticed that the two excerpts I chose from the readings this week have to do with baptism – Jesus’ and ours.  In order to begin to grasp the answer to the question of who you really are, it is important to understand that your baptism and Jesus’ baptism are deeply connected. No … 'connected' is the wrong word. It’s more like your baptism is completely enfolded in Christ’s baptism the way a baby is enfolded in the womb of the mother. All the power inherent in your baptism is drawn from the heaven and earth-shaking instant when Jesus went down into the waters and then burst forth out of them anointed to begin the working out of all he was called to. In this moment, he heard something the rest of us long and ache to hear. He heard the Father speak his Name: “You are ‘My Son, the Beloved’.” And before he had even begun his ministry, he heard the words we all subconsciously yearn to hear: "With you I am well pleased."

The Father wasn’t just saying something nice and caring to Jesus nor was he particularly concerned that others hear the Naming and understand it. This was something crucially intimate between Jesus and his Father; it was the foundational basis of EVERYTHING Jesus said and did from that moment on. After his baptism, Jesus went into the desert where there were no people, no family, no jobs, no past experiences, no vocations and no roles to play – in other words, none of the things we all normally depend on to define us – and when Satan turned up to tempt Jesus, Satan got nowhere because Jesus knew who he was.

It is significant that in the two places in scripture where we are privy to hearing the Father speak to Jesus, he didn't say, "You are the Christ. You are the Savior," or "This is your Messiah. Hear him." He simply spoke of Jesus' relationship to him. "You are my Beloved son," and "This is my Son, the Beloved. Hear him." The knowledge that he was God’s Beloved permeated Jesus' whole being. He didn’t need anything else to build up an inner sense of himself or his identity; he didn’t need the approval, acceptance or admiration of other people and he especially did not need Satan’s offerings of experience, power and status. In knowing he was the Father’s Beloved, he had everything he needed to be and do everything he was called to be and do. He lacked nothing and he knew it.

So, what does all this have to do with us and our own baptisms? You might say, “Of course the Father called Jesus his Beloved Son but how does that define me? How does that tell me who I really am?”

 Does the following sound familiar?

Father, God of mercy, through these waters of baptism you have filled us with new life as your very own children.

_(Name)_, you have become a new creation, and have clothed yourself in Christ.  See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity.

Dearly beloved, this child has been reborn in baptism. He (she) is now called the child of God, for so indeed he (she) is.

That’s from the Catholic Rite of Baptism. From the waters of baptism you rose up in Christ, clothed in him – completely enfolded in him. When you were baptized, you rose up dignified, beautiful and loved. When you were baptized the Father looked on you and beheld his firstborn son, Jesus. When you were baptized, God the Father looked at you and said, “You are my Daughter/Son, my Beloved. With you I am well pleased.”

 Yeah…but that was then. What about now? You’re not an innocent little baby anymore. You’ve muddied your boots quite a bit since you were baptized, right? That little bundle of brand new creation, all washed and lovely, has become a bit moth eaten around the edges with lots of big and little pockmarks of sin and failure and inadequacy. Right?

No doubt you've made mistakes and taken wrong paths. Your ego and its neediness has most likely dictated your actions and reactions far more often than you'd like. But the Father sees beyond and through the muck. He sees his Son and he sees the ultimate beauty of who he called you to be. Your greatest sin may be not believing and accepting that. You turn away from his love and his pleasure thinking that it will please him if you just focus on your natural unworthiness. By doing that you keep yourself from moving into the joy and freedom of being a son or daughter of the living God.

You want to know the 'secret' to living a full spiritual life? Understand that wallowing in your sin is not what heals you. Beholding who you are really called to be and walking in the beauty and promise of your Name is what will heal you. But you can't behold who you are if you won't believe you are so much more than all your petty reactions, selfish desires and desperate need for control.

Your baptism was and is an immense gift. It was the gift of new life. Do you have any idea what that means? Is it just a trite phrase you've heard way too often? New life is new life. It's life that's radically different from the old battered kind of life the world offers you - the life that caught you early and still holds you in its painful grip. The old life of the world offers unfulfilled desires, illusory promises, painful disappointments, random but heavy expectations and the suffering of a chronically ill ego but you, Beloved, have been called to a new life and a new Name. Once you even glimpse who you really are, the healing will begin.

All good parents have the desire to instill in their children a deep and healthy sense of self worth. I have never met any parents who desired that their child would become someone who can't leave mistakes behind, who berates himself all the time for not being the perfect child, who is miserable in her own lack of capacity yet has no ability to move beyond those limitations. Every balanced parent wants his or her own child to be healthy, strong, confident, effective and full of the joy of living.

Why would God, our Father, be any different? “If you then, imperfect as you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11)  The Father is waiting for you to receive new life. He is waiting every moment of the day to have you turn to him, to see his love and delight and to hear him say, “My Beloved!”

Once you hear that and once you finally believe it so that you laugh with joy because of it, you will begin to know that God is your whole definition and everything you believed about yourself up to that point was a false definition with no basis in the reality of your baptism. When you see the delight and love in God's eyes, it will be the only definition you will ever need or want. He is where you will find all your value, worth and identity. He is where your new life begins.

 The reason you will never find your identity in relationships, things, roles, vocations or even dogmas in this world is because nothing in this world can ever perfectly fit the real you, the you God created you to be. Everything you normally seek to be identified with is just a poor shadow of the real thing. Through baptism, you were given the only garment that will ever fit you perfectly; you were clothed in Christ and made identical to Jesus. He is your identity and your Name. He is the reason the Father beholds you and says, “You are my Beloved. With you I am well pleased!”

Jesus knew who he was. His inner life and power did not come from being Messiah, Healer, Sacrificial Lamb or Savior. It came from being Absolutely Beloved.

It’s good year to find out who you are.