8/11/19: 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Your Father is Pleased

The first sentence from the Gospel the Church gives us today contains these consoling (and perhaps surprising) words: Your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. How often do we presume that the Father is disappointed in us? Saddened by us? Angry with us? Actually, the Father's stance towards us is always merciful love, and he takes great pleasure in us. Why and how is this possible? Only because of what happens at our baptism, by which Christ marks our soul with His own personal presence. At our baptism and every moment thereafter, when the Father sees us, He sees His Son, and the words that He uttered at Jesus's baptism become equally true for us: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased!