Grace and peace to you
When Jesus came up from the Jordan waters his identity was affirmed as Beloved Child from the Heavens. As we remember Jesus’ baptism so we re-affirm our own Baptismal Belovedness.
One of the reasons why we baptise infants (who obviously don’t have a clue about what is going on other than feeling cold water on their forehead) is that we announce for all the world to hear that this child is beloved. Beloved even before they understand they are beloved. Beloved before they have done anything to merit being beloved. Beloved before they believe this or that about God or Jesus. Beloved simply because the Heavenly Voice declares this to be so. It is called grace. Great grace! Grace is love that cannot be earned, achieved, manufactured or manipulated. It just is. Grace is the primary building block of the cosmos and the original essence of each one of us.
This great grace is for all. For the baptised and for those who have never been baptised. In other words Baptism does not manufacture grace or capture it, rather it celebrates and announces it for one and for all.
During a baptismal service we as a community commit to living life in such a way as to inform and remind the baptised among us of their beloved status. This understanding of Baptismal Belovedness is unsurprisingly confirmed to be at the heart of growing self-acceptance in others which psychologists would insist on as necessary for a person’s mature and healthy sense of self. As Jungian therapist, James Hollis writes:
“Jung has so eloquently written of this biblical admonition: Acceptance of oneself is the essence of the moral problem and the acid test of one’s whole outlook on life. That I feed the beggar, that I forgive an insult, that I love my enemy in the name of Christ—all these are undoubtedly great virtues. What I do unto the least of my brethren, that I do unto Christ. But what if I should discover that the least amongst them all, the poorest of all beggars, the most impudent of all offenders, yea the very fiend himself—that these are within me, and that I myself stand in need of the alms of my own kindness, that I myself am the enemy who must be loved—what then?”
James Hollis, Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to Finally, Really Grow Up
Remember you are beloved,
Alan
“What would happen to our lives, our world, if the parent could unconditionally affirm the child, saying in so many words: “You are precious to us; you will always have our love and support; you are here to be who you are; try never to hurt another, but never stop trying to become yourself as fully as you can; when you fall and fail, you are still loved by us and welcomed to us, but you are also here to leave us, and to go onward toward your own destiny without having to worry about pleasing us.”
James Hollis, Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to Finally, Really Grow Up
