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He Must Increase, I Must Decrease
Where We Are
We reach the Saturday after Epiphany, the final weekday of the Christmas season. Tomorrow we will celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, which marks the transition into Ordinary Time. Today's readings form a fitting conclusion to the season. The first letter of John wraps up with a call to confidence in prayer, and John's Gospel gives us John the Baptist one last time, offering his most memorable words. The Christmas season ends as it should: with a witness pointing away from himself and toward Christ.
The Word
The first letter of John assures believers that when we pray according to God's will, he hears us. It distinguishes between sin that leads to death and sin that does not, encouraging the community to intercede for one another. It closes with a solemn warning: "Children, be on your guard against idols." In the Gospel, Jesus and his disciples are baptizing in Judea while John the Baptist continues baptizing at Aenon. When John's disciples grow anxious about Jesus's growing popularity, John responds with joy, comparing himself to the best man at a wedding who rejoices at the bridegroom's voice. He concludes with words that have echoed through centuries: "He must increase; I must decrease."
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Reflect
"He must increase; I must decrease." These seven words are among the most challenging in all of Scripture, not because they are hard to understand but because they are hard to live. We are wired for self-preservation, self-promotion, and self-importance. John the Baptist calls us in the opposite direction.
What makes John's statement remarkable is its context. His disciples are worried. Jesus is drawing bigger crowds. The movement John started seems to be fading. By any worldly measure, this is a crisis. But John does not see it that way. He sees it as the fulfillment of his purpose. He was always meant to be the voice, not the Word; the friend of the bridegroom, not the bridegroom himself.
This is the mature fruit of humility: not self-hatred but self-forgetfulness. John is not diminished by Jesus's success. He is completed by it. His joy is full precisely because the one he was sent to announce has arrived.
The first letter of John adds an important footnote with its closing warning: "Be on your guard against idols." The greatest idol is always the self. When we make ourselves the center, we displace God. John the Baptist shows us what it looks like to keep the center clear, to make room for the One who rightly belongs there.
As the Christmas season closes, this is the invitation. We have spent weeks contemplating the mystery of God made flesh. Now, as Ordinary Time approaches, the question becomes: will we let him increase in our daily lives?
Living It
Write down John the Baptist's words and put them somewhere visible this week: "He must increase; I must decrease." Let them become a daily prayer as you transition from the Christmas season into Ordinary Time.
Identify one area where your ego is taking up too much space: a relationship, a project at work, a need to be right. Consciously step back today and make room for God to work.
Practice the "best man" posture. Celebrate someone else's success today without comparing it to your own. Send a congratulatory message, amplify someone's work, or simply speak well of another person behind their back. Joy in another's grace is a sign of spiritual maturity.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, as the Christmas season draws to a close, we hear John the Baptist's words ringing in our hearts: "He must increase; I must decrease." We confess that we often place ourselves at the center of our own stories. Give us the freedom of John, who found his joy not in his own fame but in pointing to you. Clear away every idol, especially the idol of self, and fill the space with your presence. May you increase in us with every passing day. Amen.
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