In the Gospel of John (John 3:22-30), what initially caught my
attention was the phrase describing why (the ‘other’) John was baptizing. …“because there was an abundance of water
there and the people came to be baptized…”.
That struck me as funny. “Hey! I’m
here, you’re here. There’s a lot of
water. Let’s do this!”
Seriously though, St. John [the Baptist] summarizes the role he has
had in regard to Christ. He clarifies
that he himself is not the Messiah, but that "he was sent before
Him." He speaks of the joy that
this role has given him and that He must increase, and I must decrease.
Our role as baptized Christians has some of the characteristics of
St. John the Baptist in that we also are to prepare the way for Christ, not
only in our own lives, but in that of others. We do this by the example of how
we live our own lives and by teaching informally when the occasion arises.
If we are doing this, we can ask ourselves, "Does this role
bring us joy as it did St. John the Baptist? Is this joy evident to
others?" Joy prepares a path for Christ. When we step back and decrease,
as did St. John the Baptist, we too are making room for Christ as opposed to
taking on the glory for ourselves. We prepare the way, but Christ does the
rest!
No comments:
Post a Comment