John 3: 22-30
After this 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.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Intentional Humility
It is worth imagining how much of a widely popular superstar John the Baptist was in his day. John was THE prophetic voice, carrying great authority among the people throughout the area of the Jordan. Despite his refusals, many believed him to be the Messiah and came to hear him preach and to receive ritual baptism.
The last line of this passage from John’s Gospel is, to me, well worth a good pondering: he must increase; I must decrease. John did not ride out his popularity, lead on his followers, or cling to his authority, but gave it freely towards the true Messiah: Jesus the Christ.
Many of us can remember, with fresh emotion even after many years or decades, when humility was put upon us – humiliation, as such. Pondering John’s intentional self-giving humility in his words, he must increase; I must decrease, alongside our own emotional memories of the forced-upon-us kind, may give us deeper insight and appreciation for John the Baptist well beyond the simple label of “locusts and wild honey.”
—Fr. Glen Chun, SJ, a priest of the Midwest Province, is community minister of Bellarmine House of Studies in St. Louis.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, when you walked the earth,
Your humility obscure your Kingship.
Your meekness confused the arrogant,
Hindering them from grasping your purpose,
Your nobleness attending to the destitute.
Teach me to model after your eminence,
To subject my human nature to humility.
Grant me with a natural inclination
To never view myself greater than anyone.
Banish all lingering sparks of self-importance
That could elevate me greater than you.
Let my heart always imitate your humility.
—A Christian Prayer for the Virtue of Humility, author unknown
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