Greetings on this the Saturday after Epiphany
Readings: 1 John 5:14-21; Psalm 149:1-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b; John 3:22-30
Summary
Tomorrow we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord and at the end of the day a return to Ordinary Time. We get to renew our baptismal promise and take a renewed spirit into 2025! With confidence, as our first reading today says.
Beloved:
We have this confidence in him
that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
And our prayer could be modeled after the prayer of John the Baptist. All the respect, honors, power, money, wealth and every other material category is nothing as compared to the surrender of hearts.
So this joy of mine has been made complete.
He must increase; I must decrease.
Reflection
Our JOY is completed in the voluntary surrender of ego to the Lord. Our egocentricity (greed, is a more direct descriptor), learns to yield to the giving spirit by way of our Baptism. Empty, not obliterate, and fill (with every good thing).
Remember the first Signs of the Gospel of John (this is a BTW), was the ’emptying’ of the jars and the refilling of them with the choicest wine.
Personal Reflection
I wish to share in the gift of John the Baptist to know and to trust in the decrease making room for increase. Love, after all, is placing self at service to the Other.
Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011125.cfm
Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry