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Saturday after Epiphany
I John 5: 14-21
Psalm 149: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6A & 9B
John 3:22-30
Summary
While John was baptizing people in Aenon, a dispute arose whereby a Jew ques-
tioned John since Jesus was also baptizing and ‘everyone is coming to him.’ John
answered,“No one can receive anything except what has been given from heav-
en.You yourselves can testify that I said that I am not the Christ, but that I was
sent before him.The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man,
who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice….He
must increase, I must decrease.”
Reflection
To me, this gospel illuminates two key lessons from our faith that we experience
and live on a nearly daily basis.While we know Jesus was never ‘married’, we can
interchange Jesus as the groom in John’s gospel, as at every wedding the groom
is the one taking the bride, and the focus of the ceremony. John is the best man
here, but to me he also represents ALL of us.The Jew questioning John can’t un-
derstand how John can be baptizing people just as Jesus is- who is the one to be
worshipped? John makes it clear that there is but one who we should ALL be
worshipping, and that is Jesus, and we all must not confuse anyone else for Jesus
as the focus of our faith.We must all ‘stand and listen for him, and rejoice at the
bridegroom’s voice”- there is but one voice that must remain the focus of our
faith, and we must not lose that focus in our daily lives. It is easy in our 21
st
cen-
tury world of TV / Internet / Media / Social Media to be potentially over-
whelmed by different people or ‘things’ we should be listening to or ‘following’,
but as Catholics we must remember to live our lives in the image of Jesus and
act in ways that represent the one true voice to show us direction.
The second key lesson I take from this Gospel is somewhat of a derivative of the
first, and is even more relevant during this Christmas season: the birth of Christ
must be the focus of our joy and celebration at this time, not the desire for or
joy derived from material things.We live in such a materialistic society it is easy
to get lost in all the Christmas shopping and gift-giving, and it is important to
remember the one ‘voice’ that we should be listening to and rejoicing over: Je-
sus. For those of you that like me have small children (my boys are 9 and 5),
Christmas means something different to them. While it’s easier with the 9 yr old