Gospel Reflection on Matthew 3:13-17

January 11, 2026

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

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Pope Francis described the modern human being as someone who has the heart of an orphan. What does he mean by suggesting that we live as if we are orphans?

An orphan is someone who has nothing and nobody to rely on but themselves. We live every moment of our life as if everything is on our shoulders. Because we live as orphans, born by chance or by mistake, we have to justify our right

to exist.

This was the lie told by the serpent in the book of Genesis: 'you can't trust anyone to look after you, you're alone.' And this loneliness creates in us a longing to be held in high acclaim in the eyes of others.

We long for success. We prize beauty and intelligence skill. And we set out to make ourselves acceptable to make ourselves right by achieving awards and successes to construct our dignity built by our own talents and hard work. In our minds, a person is right when he behaves according to the rules and achieves success in the eyes of others. In the world of the orphan, there's no providence. There's only hard work, talent, block.

And these only go so far, our limits of which we are always painfully aware, frighten us, and the mistakes which are always common, more common than we'd like to admit, oppress

us, wear us down. And so we worry about our image in the eyes of others, and we become swamped by our defensive strategies to preserve and protect and extend our existence.

This is the cage we live in. We construct cages around ourselves, and our neighbors also live in the same cage. And the bars of the cage are made up of images of our ideas about image and looks and talents. False ideas about the things that give me dignity that make me worthwhile.

As feast of the Baptism of Jesus, everything is turned upside down. He tells us that our system of balance is our notions of what makes human beings right count for nothing.

At the moment of his Baptism, the heavens cry out that the favor of God rests on this

beloved Child. And so in Jesus by way of contrast, we see someone who lives a whole different kind of existence. It's not the existence of someone who is smarter, stronger, more beautiful, richer. It's the life of a child who knows the Father, who carries within himself the knowledge that the Father favors him.

Christ does not bestow on us new talents or riches, reassurances or strategies, but reveals

the loving God to us. And the loving God wishes to say the same to each one of us on you and you and you, 'my favor rests.' Righteousness, being in a correct relationship with God, does not require that we accomplish certain things. And the fundamental thing is to abandon ourselves and trust to God, believing that He loves us and values us.

This is what it means to be in right relationship.

Trust in the loving Providence of a Father who loves us is the only remedy that can set us free.

Now we can stop apologizing for existence.

Now we can stop trying to prove that we have a right to be here.

Now that we know that God takes pleasure in all of us, our world has finally been set

right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV2LC2IFqi0