Homily

Today’s gospel is surely a particularly apt reading for the final profession of vows which we are to witness here this morning. Jesus is baptized by John as he is about to begin the fullness of that task for which he became man.  He is confirmed by the Father as he takes this crucial step of entering ever more deeply into the lives of his brothers and sisters. The Spirit of love and communion hovers over him as he is missioned to incarnate the mercy, the tenderness, the depths of love that is this relationship. His desire and his invitation is that all may know the fullness of their identity in God and with one another. His mission will take him to the ultimate of self-sacrifice and of love. It is indeed a solemn moment.

    
For me, the central phrase of this gospel is “This is my Son, the beloved”. What more cherished and cherishing title could anyone be given? To be the beloved one, or, as the Isaiah reading of today expresses it “my chosen one, in whom my soul delights!”. Jesus has this title bestowed on him by his Father, and in turn he gifts every single one of us in the same manner. Each one of us here is the beloved one of God, chosen, and delighted in.

About a month ago I was speaking to a Professor of Theology who teaches at one of the seminaries here in Rome. I was asking him about his studies, and all that he has received and become through this life-time of learning and teaching. He agreed that all this was an enormous gift, but said however, this is not what he has come to value most; that becoming the person he is called to be goes much deeper than that. He then said:

“I believe, that we are essentially defined by those whom we love, and who love us”.

What a wonderful way to think about our development as persons! We are formed through love, we become who we are through those whom we love and who love us! Could we even say that the incarnate Jesus was defined by the love of the Father, in the Spirit; that this is Jesus’ essence, affirmed as the Beloved one?

It is for this reason that it is so important that this Church is today full of the loved ones of our sisters who are to be finally professed! You who are parents, brothers, sisters, friends and rscj, also represent so many others who cannot be here but who have been a part of the lives of our sisters, those who are dear to them and for whom each one is so important! Because of this, we thank you for your presence which speaks so much more clearly than volumes of words!

I want to refer to a theme I touched on when I met with our sisters here at the very beginning of their time together, when we were thinking about human development; significantly, emotional and mental development. I reflected with them on the way in which the mother of the new-born infant, apart from meeting the child’s physical needs, has a primary role of developing the child’s capacity for learning, for understanding and managing emotions, and most crucially, for making relationships. The group will remember that I referred to the infant’s vulnerability to new stimuli, both within her body and externally. The new-born has yet to find meaning in what she experiences, and initially these experiences can cause  alarm, panic, fear or even rage, such that she is swamped by emotion.

In response, and through her loving and all-absorbing attention to her infant, the mother will enter into her baby’s world and try to work out with him or her just what it is that frightens or panics. She will muse with her – Are you cold? or hungry? or uncomfortable? or tired; or maybe there was a loud noise that came from goodness knows what? Through her talking with her baby in this manner, the mother quietens her, she feels secure, understood, all-embracingly ‘held’ not just physically but more importantly, mentally; held in the thought of the other on whom she is totally dependent.

This ‘containment’, this ‘holding’, besides having the required external result of meeting physical needs, over time enables the infant to make sense of both bodily and external experiences, makes feelings tolerable and thus allows a quiet, reflective space where thinking can happen, where understanding can be born, where frustration can be tolerated. A place, too, where she can become aware of herself as a separate person with a  unique identity who is in relationship with other unique and separate persons.

I like to think that, just as the infant experiences the mother’s containment, her ‘holding’, her absorbed attention, so each one of you about to make her final profession today, has experienced, especially during your retreat, this ‘holding’, this loving ‘mindfulness’ of God, who calms your fears, brings you into his own space where you can be who you are as a unique person. Jesus has surrounded you with his care and his loving embrace, enabling you to experience that freedom of his Heart  of which your Probation name speaks, in that holy space within, to grow day by day into the likeness of Jesus, to be His Beloved one.

How do we live out being the beloved one of God?

After your retreat, I heard many of you saying “ it was so deep”. This reminds me of the well that has been the symbol of your Probation and to which you have returned many times, particularly during the  retreat. You have indeed been taken to the source of those waters hidden in the depths of your heart and in  the depths of Jesus’ Heart. You have been taken into God. Just as Jesus emerged from the waters of his baptism to take up his ministry among his people, so you too are going to bring these life-giving waters to others as you return to your ministries, to your communities, to all those whom you love.

As rscj, we are drawn in a two-fold movement, as our Constitutions tell us, “into the depths of God and the anguish of human-kind”. Our charism calls us to relationship, to enter into ourselves and to find ourselves in the Heart of God. It equally calls us to enter into the lives of others, to be for them that space which the God of peace, of justice and of hope can fill, and where they, too, can be held by God and know themselves as the beloved one. As you commit yourselves today, to follow Jesus for the rest of your lives as religious of his Heart, your main task is to know and to live out Jesus’ mission as he himself lived out his commitment to the Father and to his people.

As we all hold you in our love, as we support you and encourage you, so God’s incarnate love is made wonderfully manifest. For if it is true to say that we are defined by love, then it is also true that God is the one, par excellence, who loves you and whom you love. It is in being contained, ‘held’ by Jesus in the depths of his Heart, that you become the person he wants you to become and where you will find your true identity, your individuality and your essential meaning.

All of us in this church are with you, rejoicing with you as you commit yourselves today.