“He must increase; I must decrease.”

John 3:30

John 3:22-30

Reflection

Jesus and John are baptizing people near each other, when someone comes to John telling him that everyone is going to Jesus to be baptized. John replies that he was sent before Christ, as the best man who rejoices at the bridegroom’s voice. John says he must decrease while Jesus must increase.

John’s message of decreasing before Christ is something we can all emulate. John teaches us humility before our God. It can be very easy to be prideful about any number of things, yet we are not called to be full of pride. When we face Christ, we realize how great and wonderful he is compared to us sinners.

Jesus himself comes to us in all humility and beckons us to do likewise. When we repent and put ourselves at the foot of the cross, we begin to understand how to grow in holiness and virtue, particularly humility. How can you act humbly today?

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Saint of the Day

St. Gregory of Nyssa: ca. AD 335 – 395

“The true vision and the true knowledge of what we seek consists precisely in not seeing, in an awareness that our goal transcends all knowledge and is everywhere cut off from us by the darkness of incomprehensibility.” St. Gregory of Nyssa