『God so loved the world that He gave us His Son.』

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊ 

1 John 5:14-21

Through him we are fully confident

That whatever we ask, according to his will, he will grant us.   If we know that he hears us whenever we ask, we know that we already have what we asked of him.

If you see your brother committing sin, a sin which does not lead to death, pray for him, and God will give life to your brother. I speak, of course, of the sin which does not lead to death. There is also a sin that leads to death; I do not speak of praying about this.   Every kind of wrongdoing is sin, but not all sin leads to death.

We know that those born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them and the evil one does not touch them.  We know that we belong to God, while the whole world lies in evil.

 We know that the Son of God has come and has given us power to know the truth. We are in him who is true, his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

 My dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

 

Ps 149:1-2, 3-4, 5 & 6a & 9b

The Lord takes delight in his people.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊    

John 3:22-30

After this, Jesus went into the territory of Judea with his disciples. He stayed there with them and bap­tized.   John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim where water was plentiful; people came to him and were baptized.   This happened before John was put in pris­on.

 Now John’s disciples had been ques­tioned by a Jew about spiritual cleansing,  so they came to him and said, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, and about whom you spoke favorably, is now baptizing and all are going to him.”

 John answered, “No one can take on anything except what has been given him from heaven.   You yourselves are my witnesses that I said: ‘I am not the Christ but I have been sent before him.’   Only the bridegroom has the bride; but the friend of the bridegroom stands by and listens, and rejoices to hear the bridegroom’s voice. My joy is now full.   It is necessary that he increase but that I decrease.

   

The Signifier and the Signified

John the Baptist was the signifier (=pointing to the signified(=Christ). And once the signified arrives, the signifier must retreat. John knew this very well and played his role to perfection.

“He must increase, and I must decrease,” so did John declare, so did he carry it out; and he had no regrets doing so, only sense of fulfillment. Unfortunately, many signifiers in the spiritual world have difficulty ceding the place to the signified when the latter arrives or people arrive at the signified.

There is a pleasure in being the focus of attention, and hence, it is a real temptation to delay the arrival of the signified or even block it. Dying to self is a hard act. John practised this ars moriendi, the art of dying. No wonder Jesus would say later that there was no one among those born of woman greater than John!