Yes, indeed, we must all declare with fervent joy that the Lord, our God, must grow greater and we must become smaller. In other words, we renounce the ways of the world. We carry our cross and follow after Him.
And then we will lift him up on high, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings. For He, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, has conquered the world for us so that we might live free in His love. And because we renounce the evil one and his ways and choose to remain steadfast in his grace, then we are one with Him, we know His heart for us and for His children.
And so, whatever we ask shall be granted because what we ask is to glorify Him by building His kingdom and delivering His children from all evil so that they might experience His peace, love, and joy in their lives. Amen.
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First reading
1 John 5:14-21 ·
If we ask for anything, he will hear us
We are quite confident that if we ask the Son of God for anything,
and it is in accordance with his will, he will hear us;
and, knowing that whatever we may ask, he hears us,
we know that we have already been granted what we asked of him.
If anybody sees his brother commit a sin that is not a deadly sin, he has only to pray, and God will give life to the sinner
– not those who commit a deadly sin; for there is a sin that is death, and I will not say that you must pray about that.
Every kind of wrong-doing is sin,
but not all sin is deadly.
We know that anyone who has been begotten by God does not sin, because the begotten Son of God protects him, and the Evil One does not touch him.
We know that we belong to God,
but the whole world lies in the power of the Evil One.
We know, too, that the Son of God has come, and has given us the power to know the true God.
We are in the true God, as we are in his Son, Jesus Christ.
This is the true God,
this is eternal life.
Children, be on your guard against false gods.
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Gospel
John 3:22-30
‘He must grow greater and I must grow smaller: my joy is complete’
Jesus went with his disciples into the Judaean countryside and stayed with them there and baptised. At the same time John was baptising at Aenon near Salim, where there was plenty of water, and people were going there to be baptised. This was before John had been put in prison.
Now some of John’s disciples had opened a discussion with a Jew about purification, so they went to John and said, ‘Rabbi, the man who was with you on the far side of the Jordan, the man to whom you bore witness, is baptising now; and everyone is going to him.’
John replied:
‘A man can lay claim
only to what is given him from heaven.
‘You yourselves can bear me out: I said: I myself am not the Christ; I am the one who has been sent in front of him.
‘The bride is only for the bridegroom;
and yet the bridegroom’s friend,
who stands there and listens,
is glad when he hears the bridegroom’s voice.
This same joy I feel, and now it is complete.
He must grow greater, I must grow smaller.’
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