GOSPEL POWER - JANUARY 9, 2021 - SATURDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

Gospel: Jn 3:22-30 

Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he spent some time there with them and baptized. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there; and people kept coming and were being baptized  — John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison. Now a discussion about purification arose between John’s disciples and a Jew. They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” John answered, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

REFLECTION

The true greatness of John the Baptist lies in his being unattached to greatness, in his capacity to rejoice unselfishly at being eclipsed by another, even at being abandoned by former admirers and followers. He is content to see that his God-given role is coming to an end. He has no illusions of clinging to fame, nor protecting personal interests. He has much to teach our “selfie” generation that is so concerned with selfpromotion, with image enhancement, with outdoing and outrunning others to occupy the topmost place.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, may the powerful testimony of John the Baptist challenge us to examine our own concept of greatness. Amen.