Reflect today on your call to imitate the humility of St. John the Baptist

Da Paolo Tessione - January 1, 2021

“Baptized with water; but there is one among you that you do not recognize, the one who comes behind me, whose sandals I am not worthy to undo ”. John 1: 26–27

Now that our Octave of Christmas is complete, we immediately begin to look into the future ministry of our Lord. In our Gospel today, St. John the Baptist is the one who points us to that future ministry of Jesus. He recognizes that his mission to baptize with water is temporary and only a preparation for the One who will come after him.

As we have seen in many of our Advent readings, St. John the Baptist is a man of great humility. His admission that he is not worthy to undo even the straps of Jesus' sandals is proof of this fact. But ironically, it is this humble admission that makes it so great!

Do you want to be great? Basically we all do it. This desire goes hand in hand with our innate desire for happiness. We want our lives to have meaning and purpose and we want to make a difference. The question is "How?" How do you do this? How is true greatness achieved?

From a worldly perspective, greatness can often become synonymous with success, wealth, power, admiration from others, etc. But from a divine perspective, greatness is achieved by humbly giving God the greatest glory we can with our life.

Giving God all the glory has a double effect on our lives. First, this allows us to live in accordance with the truth of life. The truth is that God and God alone deserve all our praise and glory. All good things come from God and God alone. Second, humbly giving God all glory and pointing out that we are not worthy of Him has the reciprocal effect of God reaching down and elevating us to share the His life and His glory.

Reflect today on your call to imitate the humility of St. John the Baptist. Never shy away from humiliating yourself before the greatness and glory of God. In this way you will not diminish or hinder your greatness. Rather, only in the deepest humility before the glory of God is God able to draw you into the greatness of his own life and mission.

Lord, I give all glory and praise to You and to You alone. You are the source of all good; without you I'm nothing. Help me to continually humble myself before You so that I can share the glory and grandeur of your life of grace. Jesus I believe in you.