Beloved Children of God

Jesus was tempted in the desert immediately following His baptism. We heard that story this past weekend at mass.  In fact we hear different versions of that same story every year on the first Sunday of Lent. 

 

What empowered Jesus to resist those temptations for 40 days?  I think His resistance came from the voice of His Father at His baptism. His Father said: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”  Jesus’ identity as God’s Beloved Son solidified his resistance to every evil.

   

By virtue of our own Baptisms we have also become beloved sons and daughters of God. The more we believe that, the stronger will be our resistance to every evil too. 

Unfortunately many of us don’t really believe that we are God’s beloved children. If I ask you to tell me 3 things that God really loves about you, can you do it?

If you can, that’s wonderful.  If you can’t here’s a suggestion.  Ask someone, whom you trust, to tell you what they think God really loves about you. I’ll bet they’ll can come up with a few things pretty quickly.  Listen to them.