god-first

“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.

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Photo by Josh Sorenson from Pexels

Pope Francis. The Church of Mercy: A Vision for the Church. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2014

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, January 11, 2024

The Apostle John attempted to prevent someone from casting out demons in Jesus’ name because he was not one in their “company”, he was not one of those handpicked by Jesus as one of the Twelve. This person casting out demons in Jesus’ name was not like Simon the Magician (see Acts 8:9-25) who sought to buy the power of God from the Apostles to perform feats to boost his own fame and ego. He was doing what the apostles were doing and in the proper way, by invoking the name of Jesus.

Jesus said to him, “Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you” (Lk 9:50). The important part about being a disciple is surrendering to the will of God. Jesus consistently pointed this out to his followers. Being a disciple of Jesus had nothing to do with whether or not someone was in or out of their company, or whether or not they were related to Jesus, as was recorded just in the last chapter, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

Jesus, in today’s Gospel, is pointing out the danger of groupthink for its own sake. This is something we desperately need to get in our present-day and age. What is important is not putting our self, our family, our tribe, our party, or our nation first. What is important is putting God first.

The man in today’s Gospel did not rely on his own strength or willpower but called on the name of Jesus to cast out demons and he did so not because he was seeking to be great but following the lead of the Holy Spirit. John was more focused on the fact that this man wasn’t in their company, instead of being amazed that he was exorcising demons in the name of Jesus. The man was doing what Jesus had called the apostles to do. Maybe John had been a bit jealous that this man was doing a better job of it as well.

We and John can learn a bit from the humility of Job from our first reading. After losing all his livestock, workers, and children, Job turned to God in humility and said: “Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I go back again. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21-22).

“Blessed be the name of the LORD!” Job felt the anguish and pain of his loss but kept the proper perspective and trusted in God. God gave, took away, he would give again. John’s misstep and rash judgment of the man could have come from the fact that he and the other apostles were arguing about who was to be the greatest. They had taken their focus off of God and were focusing upon themselves. Jesus reminded them that the one who is least is the greatest. The one who is willing to depend on God, as a small child depends on their parent for everything, will have greater access to God as did this man and Job.

Photo: Flowers I came upon on my Rosary walk, “they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these” (Luke 12:27). Let us seek God’s will for our lives and radiate his love!

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, September 30, 2024

Spiritual Stepping Stones