“So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease.”(Jn 3:29b-30).
How could John be feeling joy with decrease? This is counter to what many aspire to in our country. Aren’t we supposed to obtain more, be more popular, and not rest on our laurels if we are to be happy? If our end goal is, fame or honor, wealth, power, and/or pleasure, then yes, that would be true. But John is giving us an insight here about what brings us real joy.
True joy comes from within when we have found our meaning and purpose in life, our mission. John was clear about his mission. John came to prepare the way of the Lord. He experienced this from the time when he leaped in the womb when Mary first arrived to see Elizabeth. From that moment, he was preparing the way for Jesus and continued to do so into his adult life. He was not distracted by how many people he was or was not baptizing, but instead was focused on preparing people to be ready for the coming of the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29).
John was not threatened by Jesus as was Herod, he is overjoyed that the time of fulfillment had come. What John had been called to do by God he had been doing. The reality that Jesus increased and John decreased brought John joy because this was the fulfillment of his mission. How many of us get to experience the fruits of our labor?
If we want to be happy, experience joy, and be fulfilled in our life, then following the lead of John the Baptist is a pretty good way to start. I do not necessarily mean selling off everything, moving to the wilderness, and subsisting on a staple of locusts and honey. The important point is that John cultivated a relationship with God. He came to know his voice, was open to his direction, acted on God’s leading, because he was clear of the part he was to play in salvation history.
Each and every one of us come to know our mission, our specific role to play in God’s plan when we slow down daily, pray, spend time reading and meditating on his word. We become consciously aware of the relationship God is inviting us to participate in. As we do so, we will better experience the Holy Spirit who “impels us to open the doors and go forth to proclaim and bear witness to the good news of the Gospel, to communicate the joy of faith, the encounter with Christ. The Holy Spirit is the soul of mission” (Francis 2014, 48).
I have been blessed to have been instilled with a sense of mission during my days with the Franciscans in my early twenties, my twenty-three years of marriage to JoAnn, and my twenty-five plus years teaching. Each of these as well as all of my other experiences have prepared me well for this next chapter of my life serving as a priest. The key practice that has helped me during each step along this path has been to ask God what he wanted me to do, to trust in his guidance, and follow him.
When we make the time to listen, we will hear and begin to recognize the voice of Jesus in the silence of our hearts, we will better discern where we are placing our time and energy, and will be better able to discern what and who we have placed before God as idols and let them go. When we are willing to have eyes to see and ears to hear, we will see where God is inviting us through his creation, our experiences, and relationships. As we step out of our comfort zones and risk, follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, and are willing to allow Jesus to increase within us, he will not only confirm for us but provide for us the means to accomplish our mission.
Spiritual Stepping Stones