January 23, 2019 | Rev. Gary Nicolosi
Winning a Nobel Prize has to be one of the greatest achievements for any human being. Think about that – being the winner of a Nobel Prize– who could argue with that measure of success, of feeling special?
Mark Albion interviewed a Nobel laureate several years ago. He wasasked how it felt to win the Nobel Prize. His reply: “It was very nice. Itprovided funding for important research we were conducting. But you know what really made me feel special? I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, on the fourth floor of a brownstone. Every day, when I returned from school at 3:00 P.M., my mother would be at the bottom of the stairs with a glass of milk and a freshly baked warm chocolate chipcookie for me. That was special.” (1)
You don’t have to be a Nobel laureate to feel special. You are special. You are loved. You are a child of God. That’s the message of today’sGospel.
Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan River. The moment Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens open and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending onhim, and a voice from heaven said, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” This was a pivotal moment in Jesus’ life and, ifwe understand the meaning of baptism, should be a pivotal moment in ours.
In his baptism Jesus began to understand who he was. Reflecting on our baptism, we begin to understand who we are. The moment you know who you are, everything changes. Life takes on a whole new meaning.
John Quincy Adams, for example, constantly lived with the realization that he was the son of John Adams, one of the founders of our nation. John Quincy Adams himself had a distinguished career: Secretary of State, President of the United States, a member of the House of Representatives. He defended slaves before the United States Supreme Court and won their freedom. And yet, as a son to a father, in any time when he had to make a major decision, he would ask himself,“What would John Adams do?” He knew from first to last that he was the son of John Adams, and that made all the difference in his own life.
You and I may not be the children of a President, but we are all sons and daughters of the Most High God. In his book, The Gospel for the Person Who Has Everything, Methodist Bishop William Willimon tells of a young friend, age 4, who was asked on the occasion of his 5th birthday what kind of party he wanted to have. I want everybody to be a king and queen, Clayton said. So, he and his mother went to work, fashioning a score of silver crowns from cardboard and aluminum foil; purple robes from crepe paper; and royal scepters made from sticks painted gold. On the day of the party, as the guests arrived, they were each given a royal crown, a robe, and a scepter, and were thus dressed as a king and a queen. It was a royal site – all kings and all queens.
That evening as Clayton’s mom tucked him into bed, she asked himwhat he wished for when he blew the candles out on the birthday cake. He said he wished that everyone in the whole wide world could be a king and a queen – not just on my birthday, but every day.
William Willimon closed the story by saying, well Clayton, baptism shows that something very much like that happened at a place called Calvary. We who were nobodies became somebodies. Those whowere no people became God’s people. The wretched of the earth became royalty.
Baptism tells us who we are. Whether we are baptized as infants or teenagers or adults, baptism declares that we are sons and daughters of the Most High God. Every one of us is of royal blood because of the blood shed for us by Christ on the cross.
Baptism also tells us that we have God’s seal of approval. Notice what happened at Jesus’ baptism: When he came up out of the water, hesaw the heavens open and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dovedescending on him, and a voice from heaven said, “You are my Son,the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Something like that happensat every baptism. When we are baptized, God puts his seal of approval on us.
Sociologists give all sorts of reasons for the social problems in the United States today. Why is there so much gun violence, why is the murder rate so high in our inner cities, why are young people attracted to gangs, why are teenage unwed pregnancies such a growing concern, why do people who obviously have intelligence and ability end up doing some very heinous things? As a priest I believe the fundamental reason we have so many social problems in this country is people do not realize how much they are loved by God. They think of themselves as rejects, mishaps and outcasts, when in fact they are beloved children of the Most High. They have no knowledge of their high dignity and precious worth. They have never claimed their status as children of God.
You see: if you think of yourself as an outcast, you will act like an outcast. If you think of yourself as a reject, you will act like a reject. If you think God will not accept you, you will be unable to accept yourself. If you think God does not love you, you will find it difficult to love yourself and to love others. If you live in a perpetual state of unworthiness, your self-esteem will plummet.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest remedy for low self-esteem. On the day of your baptism you were declared unconditionally loved and unreservedly accepted by God. You did nothing to deserve it, but God declared it anyway. This is what a sacrament is. It is a means ofgrace. It doesn’t mean you are perfect – far from it. One of the reasons water is used in the sacrament of baptism is to symbolize the removalof our sins. This wasn’t necessary for Jesus, but it certainly is for us. Ionce saw a bumper sticker that read: “Christians are not perfect, just forgiven.” God has put his seal of approval upon us. We are specialbecause we are children of God.
Several years ago, at the Pan American Games, Greg Louganis was asked how he coped with the stress of international diving competition. He replied that he climbs to the board, takes a deep breath, and thinks,“Even if I blow this dive, my mother will still love me.” Then he goes forexcellence.
In a way, we can do that because of our baptism. At the beginning ofeach day, we can wake up, take a deep breath, and say, “Even if I blow this day, my Father in heaven will still love me”, and then,assured of grace, go into the day seeking a perfect 10.
You see: there is a great truth in baptism we need to keep before us: God declares in our baptism that we are loved, we are always loved by a God who will never stop loving us, even if we at times stop lovinghim. In baptism we are born into God’s family. We don’t choose ourfamily; we are born into a family. So too with God, we don’t join God’s family, so much as we are joined into it. We become God’s sons anddaughters, not by our own doing, but by grace, amazing grace.
In baptism we know who we are and we have God’s seal of approval. Lastly, in baptism God adopts us into his family. From the earliestdays, Christians spoke of their salvation in terms of “adoption.” Baptism was compared to adoption, being made a child, an “heir” ofGod Almighty. In baptism, once God adopts us as his own, God does not kick us out, even when we disobey. Once God has called us into the family through baptism, once we are adopted, God does not let usgo. We are God’s own forever.
Mike Barnicle, a former columnist for the Boston Globe, tells about a baby born to Mary Teresa Hickey and her husband in 1945. Theparents came from Cork, Ireland. The baby was a Down’s syndrome boy. Mary Teresa held the baby tightly, saying, “He’s ours and we love him. He is God’s chosen one.”
The family lived in the Dorchester section of Boston. Their other boy was Jimmy. The dad died young of a heart attack, and Mary was left to raise the two boys on her own, nine-year-old Jimmy and seven-year- old Danny. To pay the rent she scrubbed floors at a chronic care hospital.
Jimmy took good care of Danny. Dan felt at home with all the kids because no one told him he was different. Then one day, as they wereboarding a trolley, some strange kids shouted, “No morons on the bus!” That was the day Jimmy Hickey learned to fight. It was also the day Jimmy decided to be a priest. Little Danny attended the Kennedy school in Brighton and eventually obtained a job.
In 1991, Mary Teresa Hickey died at age ninety-one after showering her sons with unyielding love all their lives. Father Jim Hickey had been a priest for thirty years. In every parish to which he was assigned, Danny went along with him. The people were favored with both men.
In October, 1997, Danny was in the hospital. His fifty-two year old body was failing. One night when ordinary people were eating supper, watching a ballgame, or going to a movie, a simple story of brotherly love played itself out at the bedside of a man who never felt sorry for himself or thought he was different.
Father Jim held his brother and asked, “Do you trust me, Danny?”
“I trust you.”
“You’re going to be OK.” “I be OK.”
Eight hundred people stood in line at his wake. Parishioners packed the church for his funeral. They sang and cried and prayed. Later that day, Daniel Jeremiah Hickey was gently laid beside his parents at New Calvary cemetery. The granite headstone bore his name and theinscription: “God’s Chosen.” (2)
God’s chosen. Would you believe that you and I are God’s chosen? It’strue. Nobody can tell us that our lives don’t matter. Nobody can tell usthat we are unloved. Nobody can take away our dignity or our value or that we are precious children of God. The good news is that no matter who you are, no matter your background or shortcomings, no matter your failures or doubts, God embraces you with open arms. Baptismdeclares us to be part of God’s family. Salvation from first to last isgrace, amazing grace.
Dr. Gary Nicolosi
January 13, 2019
Text – Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22 Epiphany 1, C
1. Mark Albion, More Than Money (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2009) 49.
2. As told by Alfred McBride, The Millennium (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 1998) 109-110.