Once I had a lively discussion with our priests on IVF (in vitro fertilization) or test tube babies, its risks and moral implications. Considering its prohibitive cost and the ethical exigencies, I thought that the possibility of such reproductive technology was remote only to learn that it is being practiced here already.
“But why resort to such controversial and dangerous means, when a childless couple can adopt a child?” I asked.
Many volunteered an answer or two. The couple would prefer to have a child of their own genes and DNA… Besides, there are many biases against adopted children. What if they are born from rape or from some problematic parents, etc.?
“But are we not all adopted children ourselves?” I countered.
We are all children of Adam and Eve, our dysfunctional parents, who passed on to us their sin and concupiscence. But God in his mercy and compassion made us his adopted children in Christ through the Holy Spirit on the day of our baptism.
Today we celebrate the feast of the Lord’s Baptism. Many question why Jesus asks to be baptized when he is without sin. St. Ambrose answers by saying, “Our Lord was baptized because He wished, not to be cleansed, but to cleanse the waters.”
My own simple answer is that Jesus wants to show us what baptism is and what it does. What happened to him at his baptism also happened to us at ours. What happened at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan?
Three things: heaven opened, the Spirit descended on him like a dove, and a voice was heard saying, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
Likewise, when we were baptized, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit came down on us. Not only, the Spirit entered our hearts and shared with us the divine life (sanctifying grace) which makes us children of God. Thus, in baptism the Father claimed saying, “You are my beloved son/daughter…” And because we are God’s children, we are heirs of his kingdom. That’s why at our baptism, heaven opened for us too.
The Final Document of the recent Synod on Synodality expresses it best. “Baptism is the foundation of Christian life. It introduces everyone to the greatest gift, which is to be children of God, that is, to share in Jesus’ relationship to the Father in the Spirit. There is nothing higher than the baptismal dignity.” (FD, 24)
To be a child of God – what can be higher than this dignity? Such dignity is not diminished even if we are merely God’s adopted children. The Father loves us as much as he loves his own Son Jesus – infinitely. Jesus himself assures us in his prayer after the last supper. “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me… and that you loved them even as you loved me.” (Jn 17: 21-23)
At the end of the same prayer, Jesus reiterated his declaration even more explicitly. “Righteous Father… I made known to them your name and I will make it known that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”
The Father loves us with the same love he has for Jesus. And without intending to sound blasphemous, I would add that the Father loves us (his adopted children) even more than Jesus (his only begotten Son). “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16) God sent his own Son to die so we may live.
How awesome! God loves us infinitely as his sons and daughters. May we truly live our divine sonship by following Jesus and becoming like him so that the Father can also say of us, “You are my beloved son/daughter… with you I am well pleased.”