In the gospel readings proclaimed at the service I attended last Sunday, we got to witness the anointing of Jesus by the Holy Spirit.  We heard the words:  “This is my beloved One, in whom I am well pleased.”  (Matthew 3:17)

I have been sitting with this word, “beloved” since then.  The priest at the online mass my husband and I attended* did a wonderful job inquiring into this word, and the sense it gives birth to in us.  She asked us– what does it mean to be beloved?  To feel ourselves as beloved?  To BE-LOVED?  This is the part that really stuck with me.  

For the first time I heard it as almost a plea from God– oh, please, my darling, be-loved.  Let yourself be loved.  Receive my love!  

What would happen if we fully, completely, received the love that God is always pouring into us?  If we surrendered?  If we truly let it in?  What would become of us?  Who would we be, as truly, wholly, begotten beloved?  

I’ve spent a lot of time in the last couple months watching my newborn niece.  She is undoubtedly, totally beloved.  There’s no question there!  Her parents adore her, her grandparents are smitten with her, her cousins delight in her, her aunties and uncles can’t get enough, and friends all around comment on her sweetness, her beauty, the intelligence (already!) of her big brown eyes.  She’s taking the world in right now.  She’s receiving all this love.  It’s almost like she can’t be anything but loved.  It’s her whole reality, it’s what she’s swimming in– surrounded by, held in, fed from– love.  

We can see it so clearly in babies, this way they are dependent on love.  And we feel it inside of us– it’s so easy to love babies.  When do we start forgetting that we are surrounded by and swimming in love, that we are beloved?  When does love somehow become something separate from us, something we have to chase after or earn or achieve?  

I think this gospel, the anointing of Jesus in the Holy Spirit, is reminding us and asking us to return to a very deep truth about what it means to be human.  To come home to the inviolable truth that we are loved–   period, full stop, no exceptions whatsoever.  Every single one of us– human, animal, plant, star, rock, every created thing– are tremendously, totally loved, just because we are.  

Yet in God’s great love for us, She also gives us choice.  She utterly respects and honors our sovereignty.  She does not take away from us our total free will to turn towards or turn away from this love.  She is all invitation, like the angel Gabriel with Mary at the moment of Annunciation.  The announcement of God’s love for us is clear– this is my beloved!  

At our birth, this was whispered into each of us as we took our first breath.  BE-LOVED.  This is impeccably true.  And it is also true that we get to choose.  God waits for our consent.  She won’t force us to say YES to this love.  We will not be coerced or tricked.  We don’t have to earn it and there is nothing to achieve.  It is always available to us.  We get to just let it in– with every breath, every softening, every remembering, every return to essence.  In every moment, we get to say YES– to BE what we ARE– loved beyond measure.  God’s beloved One, in whom She is very, very pleased.  

*My niece, Myka Moire, taking in the Love 🙂

*Charis Ecumenical Catholic Community.  Their pastor, Rev. Trish Vaani, is a truly incredible presider and theologian.  They have a delightfully welcoming online community that includes members from all over the world!  Check it out at:  https://charisecc.org