Children of God

The season of Lent is about to enter the third week and if you are like me, you are trying to carve out more time out of the busy days for an increase in prayer, focused on maintaining the appropriate guidelines for fasting, and seeking new ways to do charitable works for those less fortunate in your community.

In reflecting on my own plan for the forty days of Lent I was reminded of the Gospel of Mark, which begins with the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. This is the point where Mark began his account of the life of Our Lord, where the skies opened and a loud voice from the heavens proclaimed: “You are My beloved Son; with you I am well pleased”¹and in this proclamation and by the choice Jesus made to be baptized, we all became children of God.

This is a powerful statement which is repeated at other points in the Bible particularly when Jesus explains that we are the “light of the world” and that we must let “our light shine before all”; that is part of the message of Lent. We as Catholics are called, as children of God, to be let our light shine in our communities through corporal works of mercy and through living in the image and example of Christ.

The other corollary between the Baptism of Jesus and our Lenten journey can be found again in the Gospel of Mark where, following His Baptism, Jesus is impelled by the Holy Spirit to go into the wilderness, where He was tempted by satan and lived with the wild beasts. Jesus was fasting through those forty days and His interaction with the devil in the desert is one of my favorite parts of the Gospels, because it provides a model for when I feel pushed to the brink of my human limitations.

I reflected upon the Baptism of Jesus while I prayed The Luminous Mysteries of the Holy Rosary this week. Our Lord did not have to be baptized, that water was holy by his mere presence within it, but Jesus chose to be baptized to unite us with God and to provide us with a way in which we could follow in His footsteps and be blessed as a one of His children. It is an extremely powerful image and is another reason why I enjoy attending the sacrament of Baptism for friends and relatives who have babies, and I have even witnessed adults baptized to the faith through RCIA. It is such a joyous event because they are now baptized in Christ to walk the Earth as a child of God.

Follow Me

The other part of the message of Jesus Christ that unites us in this way as children of God is His radical preaching to us that we should think of God as “Abba” which translates quite literally to “Daddy”. Jesus explained that the relationship between each one of us and God Our Father is one of that type of intimate closeness, that we should talk to God as we would our own Daddy. In a time period where the Jewish faith had several hundred laws and all of these rules for praying, that was truly a revolutionary way to preach and teach the Way.

Jesus, when He emerged from the desert, echoed the path that was initially set forth by John the Baptist, who as a great prophet and saint laid the groundwork for the coming of the Messiah. Both John the Baptist and Jesus preached a message of repentance, and baptism was the method in which to repent and be cleansed of our sins. This was a powerful message, “the Kingdom of God is at hand” Jesus was emphasizing the importance of time and imploring us to turn our lives over to God, to live a life centered on God.

This message was also a vastly different approach because God was viewed, at that time, to be a vengeful God. However, Jesus preached that God was a loving and forgiving God who longed to be close to us all, His children. Jesus was the “good shepherd” who would “lay down his life for His sheep” and that is part of the incredible gift that Jesus Our Savior provides to us, His children.

In His early encounters with the disciples with Simon Peter, James, and John, Jesus' invitation was clear “follow me”, and according to the Gospels, they did. They dropped everything and followed Jesus, and the rest, as they say is history. I often think of Lent as a time period to do that, to drop everything, and do what Jesus wants me to do by listening to the Holy Spirit. Over the years, my Lenten journeys and sacrifices have become routines that I have introduced during Lent, but they stay with me throughout the entire year as new habits in my spiritual life.

I am involved in the Men’s Group at my parish, and one of my friends there said at our last meeting that he read a study that proved that in order to develop a new habit, humans need to do that activity for thirty days. The Lenten season is over 40 days (47 to be exact including the Sundays) and so the point being that many times if you are diligent with something during Lent it will become a routine part of your life.

So whether it is a dedication to spending more time reading the Bible, starting and keeping a prayer journal, or volunteering your time at a local charity; these practices will quite often become a part of your life. It is all part of our responsibility as followers of Jesus, and our duty as children of God.

Perseverance

In Romans Chapter 5, the importance of perseverance and the role of Christ in our redemption is detailed. These concepts are pivotal during Lent, where, for many Catholics, it can be challenging to follow the initial plans we made on Ash Wednesday, and we will hit some bumps in the road on the way to Easter.

Jesus does not want us to feel burdened by our mistakes, rather He wants us to be free from guilt and to be His hands and feet in the world. We, as children of God need to be focused not on what we have done in the past, but what we can do in a positive way to bring about change in our families, our parishes, and our communities. We need to follow Jesus by loving one another and serving those who are less fortunate: the poor, the disabled, the elderly, and the marginalized.

In Romans Chapter 5, it teaches us that through perseverance comes “proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” this is a critical message because we can very easily focus on the unpleasantness of sacrificing during Lent. We could very easily get bogged down if we feel lousy physically because we are fasting on Fridays. However, through perseverance we have hope, and through hope we have the love of God to help us through those moments of difficulty.

We also have the example of Jesus, who as Romans Chapter 5 continues, sacrificed Himself on a Cross so that we may be free of sin and have eternal life. Jesus persevered through a challenging public ministry, and a horrible Passion and Death so that we may have life in the Kingdom of God. That is the example that we need to remind ourselves of to get through the challenges that we will face not only during Lent, but at other points in our life.

Jesus promised us at The Ascension that He would not leave us alone, He sent us the Holy Spirit to live within each one of us who are called to be children of God. I know people who feel burdened by sin, I know people who are lost, I know people who are hurting; I have told them to very simply call upon the Holy Spirit to guide them back to the right path, His path. His love is all any of us will ever need to be fulfilled.

So as we all continue on this Lenten journey, let us take comfort that we are children of God, but with that we have a responsibility to do God’s work here on Earth. We can do this through faith and trust in God. We can do this through the three pillars of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. We are children of God, so go out into the world and let you light shine for everyone to see, so that they may find their way to God if they are lost. May God bless you all.

¹ http://www.usccb.org/bible/mk/1:10