THE BELOVED SON

Today we celebrate the feast of the baptism of Jesus. Many have gathered around the Child during this time, and all have tried to tell us something about him. The evangelist Luke told us that his birth was a historical event, a real event, and not a myth, a fairytale. Hence the focus on the historical and even geographical coordinates of his birth. God entered time. Matthew, however, told us that Jesus is the fulfilment of God’s promises. What the ancient prophets had prophesied was born in Bethlehem, of a virgin, and is called Emmanuel, God with us. God, therefore, neither deceived nor disappointed. On the day of the Epiphany, he also added another detail, that of the star, to show us how even the heavens point to Christ, even the stars, in their course, testify to him. Then comes John, with his solemn Prologue that resounded on Christmas Day. John first reported the testimony of his community, which recognized the glory of God in Jesus. In Jesus of Nazareth, those first-century Christians saw God. And they also said that Jesus is the word of God, the Logos in Greek. Today, however, as we heard in the Gospel, it is the Father who speaks to us about Jesus: “This is my beloved Son; with him I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17). Let us pause briefly on these words. First, we can note that we are not before a revelation addressed to Jesus, but a revelation about Jesus to us. For God, Jesus is first and foremost the Son. What does this mean? Saying that Jesus is the Son does not only mean affirming that he is of divine nature. This also applies. Jesus is the Son because he is the visibility of the Father, so Jesus’ humanity is the sacrament of God in this world. And we, through the sacred humanity of Jesus, ascend to God. In this regard, there is an extraordinary text by Pope Paul VI: “If n the face of Christ we can and must recognize the face of the heavenly Father: ‘Whoever sees me,’ said Jesus, ‘sees the Father,’ then our humanism becomes Christianity, and our Christianity becomes theocentric, so much so that we can also affirm: to know God, we must know man.” The man Jesus is the perfect icon of our humanity. But Jesus is the Son loved by the Father. How loved? In John 13 we read that the Father’s love reaches the point of placing everything in the hands of the Son. The Father loves the Son to the point of disposing himself completely of Himself, to the point of giving himself entirely to the Son. Therefore, it is a love that pours itself into the Son; a love that is a self-giving and a giving, and at the same time, a love filled with trust. But that’s not all: Jesus is God’s pleasure. Beautiful. An infinite God who rejoices in the Son who took on our finiteness, our limitations. Jesus is so Son, and Son to the fullest, that he irresistibly attracts the Father. Therefore, we can say not only that whoever sees Jesus sees God, but also where Jesus is, there is God’s presence. And we know that Jesus identified with every human being. Therefore, we can say that every person is the place of the invisible God, the place where the Father awaits me to say to us: “You are my son, my beloved: in you I am well pleased.”

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Praglia (Italy)

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves,
Prinknash Abbey