He Must Increase; I Must Decrease

Homily for Saturday after the Epiphany

We have come to the last Christmas weekday and to the final chapter of the First Letter of St. John. Throughout this season we have been spending time considering the mystery of the Incarnation through which God has taken on human flesh. During this time the church keeps reminding us that God who is invisible has become visible because God has chosen to be one of us. God has done this because God loves us.

Choices are important in anyone’s life. In this choice God has shown us that our choices are just as important as the choice God has made to take on human flesh. Each of us is faced with making choices almost every day of our lives. We are constantly trying to make the right choice. Some years ago, people would ask, “What would Jesus do?” You could see these words on bumper stickers and billboards all around us proclaiming “WWJD?”. These words were a popular way for us to remember that our actions in this world should be evidence of who we were as followers of Jesus Christ.

In the first reading today, John the evangelist reminds us that by coming among us Jesus has given us the ability to discern the truth. Although his language is oftentimes difficult to understand, John recognized that when it comes to discerning what we should do in this world, we should be guided by the choices that Jesus would make. Though he doesn’t use the same words that we find in that popular question (What would Jesus do?), it is fairly clear that that’s what he means.

In the Gospel text for this day, the disciples of St. John the Baptist get into an argument because they have discovered that Jesus and his disciples are also baptizing people. They get into a heated argument about this. St. John the Baptist utters some very important words about anyone’s relationship to Jesus; namely, “He must increase and I must decrease.” The Baptist realizes that there is no room for jealousy when we are doing God’s work. Each of us has been called by God to pursue that which is true, to do that which Jesus would do, to remember that our importance in this world is never to put ourselves first. The choices that we make must always point other people toward Jesus.

As we approach the altar this morning to receive Jesus in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, let us keep St. John the Baptist’s words in the forefront of our minds: “He must increase; I must decrease.”