During the baptism of Jesus, a voice resounded from heaven: "This is my beloved Son". The same words will be heard also during the experience of Transfiguration (cf. Mt 17:5). What do those words mean? The word "beloved" is not there by chance, as a sweet word or a gentle and polite way for addressing Jesus. On the contrary, it has an important meaning and tells us something about Jesus’ deepest identity. It explains to us who Jesus really is: He is the Beloved. Jesus' identity is expressed by the fact of “being loved” by the Father. This is confirmed by the reflection of Saint Augustine, who explains the Trinity by saying that the Father, is the Loving One, the Son is the Beloved One, and the Holy Spirit is the Love itself. According to him, therefore, the identity of the Son is expressed by the fact of “being loved” by the Father.

In our personal baptism, we take part in the experience of Jesus’ baptism. Just as it happened to Jesus, through this sacrament we become aware of being children of God. In our baptism, each one of us hears once again the same words from heaven: "This is my beloved son or daughter." Thus, we discover who we really are, we become aware of our deepest identity: we, likewise Jesus, are, before anything else, beloved children. We have a Father in heaven that loves us immensely. Receiving the baptism, therefore, should be like the experience of a person that was convinced to be an orphan, and yet, suddenly, realizes that he or she has a father. What an amazing surprise!

This awareness of being loved by God is the main foundation of our spiritual life. Without the perception of God’s love for us, we cannot take any step in our spiritual journey. We will feel overcome by the sense of imperfection, weakness, sinfulness, and our fears will become overwhelming. On the contrary, our conviction of being loved by God will give us inner strength and help us start again any time we fail, to keep on walking in our journey. God's love is more powerful than our sins and weaknesses. Moreover, our Father will hold our hand also while we face troubles and difficulties: we are not alone! So, although we are not perfect, nor saints or supermen, we are princes and princesses anyway, because we have a Father, and He is the King of Kings!

A fire broke out in a squatter area in Jakarta and destroyed many houses. After the fire was extinguished, only a wall of a ruined house was left standing. On that wall, someone wrote the words "everything will be all right, at the right time." While reading those words, I thought that the writer, who probably lost everything, really believed in God's love for him. Spontaneously, I asked God to give me such a strong faith, which origins in my baptism: looking back to this sacrament, I discover that I have a Father who cares and loves me immensely.