Beautiful, Loved, Known

A Reflection on the Gospel for January 9th, 2022:
The Feast of the Baptism of The Lord

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Luke
3.15-16, 21-22

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Do you ever have that sinking feeling that you’re not enough? More specifically, that your body is not enough? We live in a world of constant messaging telling us what to look like to be deemed beautiful, accepted, loved, acknowledged. It is easy, if we’re attuned to this messaging to be defeated by the pursuit of perfection in our physical bodies.


In today’s Gospel, we are given the beautiful description of the baptism of the Lord: Where the physical bodies of the people become united with the Holy Spirit in baptism. As a Christian, this is such a fundamentally life altering experience where our bodies become united with God through the Holy Spirit. We are no longer simply bodies — we are spiritual beings.


Even though I have been convinced of this reality for some time, I have had great difficulty in the struggle with my physical body and being detached from the gift of baptism in which I received graces from the Holy Spirit affirming the beauty and worth of who I am. I tend to lose eternal perspective when it comes to food and my body — I think that the most holy or good thing to do is to make myself the most active/fit/disciplined version of myself to honour “the temple” of the Holy Spirit.


I’d like to challenge that today.


I think that there is a danger in the manifestation of perfection in the physical. It removes us from grace and gentleness with our bodies and with that allows for darkness to enter. Our bodies are amazing — they can grow, heal, produce new life. Sometimes the sheer beauty and awe of our bodies is lost on me. I have fallen into this spell of despair and comparison and have been so heavy with wanting to change parts of my physical self that it has led me to develop an eating and exercise disorder in the past.


I’d like to affirm you if you’ve felt this way before, or perhaps you’re feeling it now: you’re not alone. Food and your body do not have to be so difficult to carry. You are so beautiful, so loved, so known by God.


Let the final word of the Gospel message ring in your hearts (I like to use my name in the passage for visualization), “you are my daughter, ______, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased”.




If you are still feeling this way and need help in this area of body dysmorphia or eating disorders, there are some links to resources below. You are never alone.


https://mha.nshealth.ca/en/services/eating-disorder-program 
https://nedic.ca/ 




Theresa James
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