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Reflection – January 12, 2019

Lesley Stevenson ‘16

“He must increase; I must decrease.”

John the Baptist’s consolation to his disciples, who insinuate Jesus is poaching their followers, tees up an easy shot at false idols: space for God must increase in our lives, even and especially at the expense of personal exploits.

But John’s wisdom also specifically addresses a vice that I grapple with every day, especially around the new year: jealousy.

John’s followers, threatened by this successful new rabbi, fear irrelevancy as Jesus’ ministry eclipses their own. As these disciples compare themselves to Jesus’, so I compare myself to others, fairly or unfairly, even when it induces self-loathing, even though it hurts my relationships with friends and family when I begrudge their success.

John the Baptist has this bonus lesson for us jealous types: comparisons like this are meaningless. My Notre Dame classmates are moving, traveling, getting married and promoted. We all chose different paths, so successes look and occur differently for each of us. In reality, none of us has checked off all of our lifetime personal and professional boxes. Rather than respond with jealousy or even merely accept these differences, John tells us to celebrate them, like a best man for the groom (a poignantly apt metaphor for us unmarried twenty-somethings).

Today’s Responsorial Psalm only confirms John’s advice:

“Sing to the Lord a new song
of praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Let Israel be glad in their maker,
let the children of Zion rejoice in their king.”

Being happy, truly happy, for others demands selflessness, humility and loving kindness. Personally, I’m working on it. But, lest we worry the success of others will, as John’s followers feared, diminish our own worthiness, the response to today’s psalm is, “The Lord takes delight in his people.” The Lord knows our struggles and still takes delight in us. As we learn to decrease, he will increase—and will continue to rejoice with us.