This is my Beloved Son with whom I am well pleased ...

“This is my Beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” These are the words we hear every year right before the first Sunday of Lent after Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist. And I think the season of Lent and the paschal mystery itself is about dying to ourselves and realizing how much Jesus loves us, how Beloved we are.‘I love you so much that I’m willing to be falsely accused for you. I love you so much I’m willing to be scourged for you. I love you so much I’m willing to be ridiculed and spit on for you. And I love you so much that I’m willing to die for you.’ I don’t know about you, but this is a kind of love I have trouble getting my arms around and truly believing and accepting with both my head and my heart.

This Sunday we heard the Parable of the Prodigal Son, a parable many of us have heard before. In the parable, the young Son asks for and squanders his inheritance, but upon his return home is freely received by the loving arms of his father, while the older son is jealous and hard-hearted and refuses to enter his father’s house after this outrageous demonstration of love and mercy toward his younger brother.

We can all identify with the older son I think, who jealousy says, “How dare my father say to my younger brother, ‘this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.’ He doesn’t deserve it.” And we can all identify with the younger son too I think, who upon his return, prepares to tell his father, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you, I no longer deserve to be called your son.”

In the end, they’re both right. The Prodigal doesn’t deserve his father’s love and mercy, but it’s given to him anyway. And I think that’s the whole point of this story, our true inheritance is being God’s Beloved, it’s not about the property, the cattle, or the number of servants we have. As you’ll remember at the beginning of the story, the father gives freely the financial inheritance requested by his son without an argument, question, or challenge - - even though culturally at the time it would have been and still is today a tremendous insult for a young man to ask his father to cash-in his inheritance while the father is still alive.

But our TRUE inheritance as believers is that we are, as St. Paul says, “baptized into the blood of Jesus Christ.” His baptism is our baptism, the voice that calls him Beloved calls us Beloved, and the death that he died was for OUR sins, not his own. How outrageous is that? We certainly don’t deserve that kind of inheritance - - but it’s given to us anyway. It’s given to us freely with open arms from the Father who is waiting for us to return home this Lent amidst the sounds of music and dancing.

Whether we’re a son or daughter who has squandered our gifts on a selfish lifestyle like the younger son, or a codependent performance-oriented lifestyle like the older son, we BOTH are granted the same Beloved inheritance by Almighty God. God doesn’t grade on a scale. If we come home to him in a Spirit of love and repentance, we all get “A’s.” Truly, no child is left behind. How radical is that? But we’ve got to come home to him first and show up every day for school. That is what Lent is about. He wants to school us in what our inheritance as his Beloved is about. It’s not about performing outwardly for him during Lent - - giving up this or doing that - - it’s about letting God perform inwardly in our hearts. And he is waiting for us, as in the Parable says, to give him permission to do it.

“This is my Beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.”

The reason many of us are passionate about doing social justice work I think is that we have a genuine desire to serve those less fortunate than ourselves and share our gifts and blessings. Sounds like a nice thing to do, right? Our society is good with that. Giving something back, making tax-deductible donations, and looking out for those in need. But where does that desire come from?

Whether we realize it or not, I’d offer that we’re being called to share with others the outrageous love of the Father demonstrated in the Parable of the Prodigal Son: Welcome home with loving arms those who have hurt us. Give our love to those who have squandered their inheritance. Kill the fatted calf and celebrate with the sounds of music and dancing. It’s nice to say, but can really do this? Do we set our sights high enough?

During my recent trip to Israel, I had the realization during a reflection at the banks of the river Jordan, that I was a Beloved son of God, and I shed a few tears as I received that. Fr. Michael who was leading our pilgrimage helped me make a connection between Jesus’ baptism, the devil’s temptation in the desert, and our own lives as the Beloved of God. After his baptism by John, the Lord says to Jesus, “This is my Beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” Then the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the desert where the devil tempts him by saying, “If you are the Son of God … then do this,” and if you are the Son of God … do that.” So the devil is simply trying to get Jesus to doubt the truth of his gift of being the Beloved Son of God, doubt the power and integrity of the giver of the gift, God himself, and doubt his need for dependence on God for daily nourishment and subsistence.

As scripture tells us, Jesus passes these three tests from the devil with flying colors to go on to do amazing things with his ministry to the Jews and Gentiles, but how do these tests and temptations stop us from doing amazing things in our work and ministry?

• Do we trust in our inheritance as the Beloved of God to stretch ourselves like Jesus did, or do we do play it safe, and play it small?
• Do we trust in our inheritance as the Beloved of God when we face potential roadblocks and/or suffering, or do we persevere?
• Do we trust in our inheritance as the Beloved of God or do we let our own vision get in the way of what God has planned sometimes?
• Do we trust in our inheritance as the Beloved of God when we are successful, and give gratitude to God for the way he has blessed our work, or do we take the credit?

I’ve learned that if I truly believe I am a Beloved child of God and live into it this blessing every day, the devil and his doubts and temptations can’t touch me. I am a Beloved Son of God and unless I doubt or surrender the integrity of this gift to the devil or someone else, he and his lies can’t touch me. That is why; I believe Lent always begins from the baptism of Jesus, because we always need to be reminded before we go into this time in the desert that we are Beloved sons and daughters of God. Can we conceive it? Do we believe it? Do we receive it? If we do, we can do amazing, unstoppable things.

What St. Paul's Letter to the Romans Has to Teach Us Today

St. Paul’s theology, as demonstrated in the book of Romans, is just as important today as it was at the time he wrote it because we, in the post-modern world, encounter just as many divisions and disagreements within the Christian Church today as Paul did in his time. I believe this has happened because, psychologically, by human nature, all Christians want to know they are “saved” and are going to heaven. As a result, we all naturally become focused on the rules and guidelines of our faith (the Law), and how to get to heaven, rather than living the Spirit of the Law, as Paul describes in Romans.

As we all know and Sigmund Freud would tell you, it’s human nature to try and act obediently in order to avoid punishment (Pregeant, page 259). Paul says in contrast that we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ through God’s grace, and this grace is a gift given freely by God. It cannot be earned by our prescriptive, “good” behaviors as a Christian who is intent on fulfilling the law. In my opinion, the misguided focus of Christians bent on fulfilling the Law to earn salvation today has created, and continues to create divisions and disagreements in the Church about who is doing the faith correctly or incorrectly and, subsequently, who has earned a place in heaven and who has not. Like Paul’s letter to the Romans, today we encounter disagreements in the Church about similar issues:

• Faith vs. works (e.g. Are we saved by faith or by works?)
• Law vs. the Spirit (e.g. Who’s following the right Christian rules and who’s not?)
• The Role of Women in the Church (e.g. Why can’t women become priests?)
• Homosexual Relationships (e.g. Can someone practice a gay lifestyle and still be considered a Christian? Can/should a gay man or woman be allowed to become a minister?)
• Slavery (e.g. Why is there still abuses related to human trafficking and illegal immigrants?)


In this reflection I will address the first two bullet points on this list.

Yesterday I received an e-mail from my Aunt who was feeling out of sorts because she shared with a friend that she was converting to the Catholic faith from her Episcopal roots. The friend proceeded to beg her to change her mind for fear that she would end up going to hell. Unfortunately, I have other Catholic friends who struggle with the same objections from their evangelical friends during discussions about their Christian faith practices. In Romans, however, Paul tells the Church community that, despite their judgments to the contrary, all people are held under the “power of sin” - - whether Gentile, Jew, or pagan - - yet we are all justified by our faith in Jesus Christ and his promise of salvation (Pregeant, p. 245, 248, 250), just as Abraham was (Ludwig, p.7). God’s righteous action restores our relationship with him through Christ, and we cannot perform specific acts or say specific prayers to earn his grace. Paul goes on to say that righteousness is based on faith, not the Law, and subsequently obedience to the law is a dead end (Pregeant, p. 247, 249).

Paul’s writings on this issue are obviously applicable to today, but I would point out that, in my experience, someone cannot be argued out of their allegiance to specific faith practices (e.g. Law). That’s where the Holy Spirit comes in. The Spirit and God’s grace purifies the hearts of Christians over time through the practice of prayer so they come to know the truth of faith in their hearts, not just in their heads.

Based on my earlier example and experience, it’s interesting to compare how typical evangelicals and Catholics interact in today’s society, similar to how the Jewish and Gentile Christians addressed in Romans must have interacted in Paul’s time. Like the Jewish Pharisees, most evangelicals today know and can quote scripture better than any Catholic can. As such, like the Jews of Paul’s time, this knowledge of scripture for evangelicals is an advantage but can also be a stumbling block. If you have the mindset that the written Word of God is the Word of God (aka the Bible), and if something is not written in the Bible then it obviously can’t be true, I think this mindset can create blinders that crowd out God’s ability to get one’s attention and teach you anything through the Holy Spirit. Just look at Paul’s own experience. He was so militantly obedient to the Jewish Law that God had to knock him over and blind him for three penitential days before scales fell from his eyes and he “saw the light” of his calling to become an apostle of Jesus Christ. So Paul’s letter to the Romans reinforces for us today that faith has to always be a heart thing and not just a head thing. It’s not about the rules, but the grace, and God is the one who gives the grace. We can only ask for it and receive it in God’s time and measure.

Being a Christian is also not about who’s in the “salvation club” and who’s not. It’s a recognition that we’re all in the “sinner club”, and we can only be a part of the “salvation club” if we nurture a committed relationship with Jesus Christ in both faith and works. According to Paul, Christ provides what the law could not, freedom from sin and death (Pregeant, p. 249). Once we let go of worrying about who’s in or out of the “salvation club,” and focus on living in the Spirit of our faith, Christ (and Paul’s) message of loving our neighbor as ourselves can come into sharper focus. The net benefit of this is that we all end up trying to lift up each other’s boats through our love, rather than being isolated and just working on our own personal relationship with Jesus. As Paul describes, the life of a believer is a life of love that is worked out in our daily walk as Christians (Pregeant, p. 258). Some days we do it well, and other days we do it poorly. It’s a journey, but our Christian faith calls us to live and love in humility, charity, community, and a cheerful hope to persevere in our trials (Ludwig, 9).


Two-thousand years later, it’s apparent we still have much to learn from Paul’s letter the Romans. We Christians are still debating what it means to be a good Christian, we’re still sinning, and we’re trying to learn how live in God’s good graces. So if Paul’s letter was re-sent to us as a text message titles, “A letter to the Chicagoans,” it would be just as relevant to our lives as it was to the Romans in their time.