1 John 2:22-28
Psalm 98: 1-4
John 1: 19-28 Full Readings
Saints Basil the Great, Gregory Nazianzen
Humility
Brethren, now that our Christmas Octave is completed, we immediately begin to look toward the future ministry of our Lord. In our Gospel today, Saint John the Baptist is the one who points us to that future ministry of Jesus. He acknowledges that his mission to baptize with water is one that is temporary and only a preparation for the One Who is coming after him, Jesus Christ, the newborn king, who will baptise with fire and the Holy Spirit. As we saw severally in our Advent readings, Saint John the Baptist is a man of great humility. His admission that he is not worthy to untie even Jesus’ sandal straps is proof of this fact. But ironically, it is this humble admission that makes him so great! Brethren, we are also called to this mission, to proclaim to all people, the mission of Jesus Christ, the one who saves us from our sins.
St. John the Baptist teaches us a lesson about humility in this passage. His followers looked up to him, even to the point of wondering if he was the Messiah who would come. But John clearly knew his mission. He would point out the true Messiah, and he would disappear. In another Gospel passage, he said to his disciples, “I must decrease; he must increase” (John 3:30), as he was looking in Jesus’s direction. John the Baptist reminds us that one thing matters: not fame or glory, but that people encounter Jesus in us. John really knew who he was.
When associated with a famous person or a celebrity, do we take advantage of it, or we clearly come out and say who we are? When John the Baptist was asked who he was by the Jews from Jerusalem, he knew how to answer. He told them who he was NOT! He was not the Messiah, not Elijah, not a prophet. Do we know who we are NOT? Of course, we know we’re not God, right? But isn’t that exactly how we act when we take on difficult circumstances without praying first? Or judge someone offhandedly? Or put our agenda before the person’s standing in front of us? Lord, you told Saint Catherine of Siena, “You are she is not; whereas I am he who is.” I am nothing and can do nothing without God (John 15:5). Give me that humility God.
John was not the Messiah, Jesus was. Jesus is the Word, the Word through which the Father created everything, the Word who became flesh to save us from sin. John the Baptist knew that he was not the Word. The Word was given to him. He knew himself to be merely a voice. But he knew that his calling was a very important and irreplaceable mission. God wants to use our talents, our gifts, and who we are to communicate himself to mankind, in much the same way John the Baptist did. Every morning we can offer the Lord our hands, our feet, our voice, and our heart so he can use them to point people to salvation. He is the protagonist, but he wants us to be part of his great story of salvation. What we do to spread the Gospel makes a difference in the eternal life of others.
We should be able to say like John, “I am a voice of one crying out in the desert...” John the Baptist chose to identify himself to his inquisitors by stating his mission. How would you respond? “I’m the person singing in the church evangelizing through music. I am the one quietly saying the rosary on the plane. I am the shopper smiling at strangers in the store for love of you.” In our own way, each of us is called to be a missionary to this modern desert of contemporary society. Our mission is an essential aspect of our identity as Christians: “The missionary who, despite all his or her human limitations and defects, lives a simple life, taking Christ as the model, is a sign of God and of transcendent realities….everyone in the Church, striving to imitate the Divine Master, can and must bear this kind of witness; in many cases, it is the only possible way of being a missionary.” Saint John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio.
St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen, whom we celebrate today, were, like St. John the Baptist, great examples of people who lent their voice to Christ. They were best friends, bishops, and doctors of the Church. Saint Gregory said of their friendship, “...our great pursuit, the great name we wanted, was to be Christians, to be called Christians.” He said that the two friends had a single objective: “virtue, and a life of hope in the blessings that are to come…” Both gave their life to God in the monastic life, but God called them to the episcopate. As bishops, they had to speak strongly against heresies of the time. When have you ever experienced God filling you with courage and wisdom to do his will? He wants to remind us that our mission is his work, not ours, and that he will accomplish it in and through us if we let him.
Reflect today on how ready you are to carry out the mission of God, to proclaim that Jesus is the one who saves us from sin, with your whole self, but above all putting on humility like St John the Baptist. Pray for all these graces.
Let us Pray
Lord Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart more like yours. Today I renew my trust in your grace working through me, even when I do not see it. I could never take the credit for what you do in and through my life because I have experienced my own frailty, and I know the good that happens is yours. Amen
Be blessed
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