Homily for Saturday After Epiphany

In today’s Gospel passage, the disciples of John the Baptist seem concerned about the attention that Jesus is getting, that, perhaps He is stealing some of John’s thunder. But John, in a spirit of humility and a spirit of joy, restates that he is not the Christ and that he was merely sent before Him to announce His coming. John understood that his mission was not about himself, that his role was to be a herald, alerting people to the coming of our Savior.

We need to remember this same lesson and emulate the same humility as did John the Baptist. The mission that we are given is not so much about ourselves, but the service of others and the glory of God. It is only with a genuine understanding, appreciation, and acceptance of this that we can pray the words that John said today, “He must increase; I must decrease.”+