January 10: First Sunday after the Epiphany
I never will forget a video I watched while I was in graduate school of Henri Nowen preaching the sermon “Being the Beloved.” Nowen was a Dutch priest and author of many books on spirituality, and he had been invited by Dr. Robert Schuller to preach during “The Hour of Power” at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA. As I watched Nowen preach his message, I was captivated by his presence and his words on the importance of knowing we are truly loved by God. Recently I was delighted to learn that the video of Nowen preaching this important sermon is online at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3701709082567809182#.
In this famous sermon “Being the Beloved”, Nowen asserted that many of us live our lives based on one or more untruths: we are what we do, we are what we have, we are what people say about us. When we are productive, when we own things of value, when people speak well of us, we feel good about ourselves, according to Nowen, but if any of these conditions change, we are likely to slip into depression. Nowen said that we need to live our lives based on our knowledge that we are beloved daughters and sons of God; that this is the real truth of who we are.
Today’s gospel passage from Luke recounts the message of which Nowen reminds us: that at his baptism, Jesus was told, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” In his sermon “Being the Beloved”, Nowen says that throughout his whole life Jesus was able to hold onto the truth of what Jesus was told at his baptism. During times when he was praised or times that he was vilified, times when people wanted to crown Jesus king or when he was mocked and crucified, Jesus claimed the truth of who he was:the Beloved son of God. It was the knowledge of the love the Father had for him that provided the core of Jesus’ identity, helped keep him grounded through all the ups and downs of his life and ultimately sustained him throughout his suffering and death.
I wish that we could all hold onto this truth, that we are the beloved daughters and sons of God, just as Jesus did. It would make such a difference in how we live our lives. When my oldest son was a senior in high school, he made a retreat with his class, and as part of the retreat program, parents were asked to write their high school seniors a letter. I wanted to convey to my son the importance of remembering he is loved, and so in my letter I wrote, “My hope for you is that you will always carry within you the knowledge that you are loved beyond belief, both by your father and me, but most importantly and especially, by God. It is this tremendous love we all have for you that will sustain you through the most difficult of times. Even if people betray you, if hard times befall you, if sadness or loss afflict you, you can always access this inner core of truth: you are loved. ” It is my greatest hope that each of my children can carry within themselves the knowledge they are loved.
In his book The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle seems to echo some of Henri Nowen’s thoughts on the importance of knowing our intrinsic value as sons and daughters of God when Tolle wrote, “Love is a state of Being. Your love is not outside; it is deep within you. You can never lose it, and it cannot leave you. It is not dependent on some other body, some other form.” Very often at the rehab hospital where I work, patients feel diminished by their injuries, and think that their stroke/paraplegia/head injury is the sum total of who they are as persons. Though I cannot begin to fully understand the pain they feel as a result of not being able to talk/walk/function as they used to, what I try to mirror to them is that their essential uniqueness as persons remains the same despite their limitations.
No matter who we are, we all carry within us a set of vulnerabilities that make it difficult at times to hear the voice of God within that longs to tell us,”You are my beloved. In you I am well pleased.” We are challenged during these times when it is hard to hang onto our “belovedness” to find a quiet space in our lives, so that once again we can hear the voice of God. It is this Voice that longs to proclaim to us our status as beloved daughters and sons of God, the same Voice that Jesus heard at his baptism.