9 January 2027 · Latin Rite
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“He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:29–30
John the Baptist's disciples are upset: everyone is now going to Jesus. John answers with one of the most generous sentences in the Bible. He calls Jesus the Bridegroom, the title God used for himself with Israel, and calls himself only “the friend of the bridegroom”, who rejoices to hear his voice. “For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.” Jealousy in ministry and in families is overcome by joy that Christ is loved.
St John ends his letter with confidence in prayer: “if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” He asks us to pray for a brother who sins, and he closes with a short warning: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” An idol is anything we put in God's place: money, reputation, a person, our own importance. The Baptist's way, letting Christ grow and ourselves grow smaller, is the surest protection against idols. Tomorrow we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, where John's ministry reaches its high point.
Theme: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
The joy of the Bridegroom's friend; prayer and freedom from idols.
“For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” Isaiah 62:5
“He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled.” John 3:29
Apply: Married couples: renew your vows in prayer together this week.
“Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.” Psalm 115:1
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30
Apply: Praise someone whose success you envy.
“you shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3
“And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.” 1 John 5:14–15
Apply: Name one idol in your life and give it back to God.
John's joy is complete when Christ is loved.
Let Christ grow, and every idol shrink.
Take-home resolution: Prepare for the Baptism of the Lord by renewing your baptismal promises tonight.
Dear friends, the disciples of John the Baptist come to him upset: the one you baptised is baptising, and all are going to him (John 3:26). They feel their master is losing out.
John answers with great freedom. No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. Then he uses a wedding image: the bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom stands and hears him and rejoices greatly at his voice (John 3:29). John is the best man, not the groom.
And he says the sentence that sums up his life: he must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30). Jealousy is one of the great sicknesses of parishes, families and workplaces. John shows the cure: joy that Christ is loved, even if I am forgotten.
St John's letter ends with confidence and a warning. If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us (1 John 5:14). And: little children, keep yourselves from idols (1 John 5:21). An idol is anything that takes God's place, including my own importance.
Tomorrow we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, when John baptises Jesus in the Jordan. Let us prepare by letting Christ grow larger in our lives, and our pride grow smaller. Amen.
Children, John the Baptist was happy when people loved Jesus more than him. Let us be happy when our friends do well!
Lord Jesus, Bridegroom of the Church, let me rejoice to hear your voice. May you increase in my life and I decrease. Keep me from idols, and teach me to ask according to your will. Amen.
On the last weekday of the Christmas season the First Letter of John comes to its end, and John the Baptist makes one of his last appearances in the Fourth Gospel. The letter speaks of the boldness of those who know they are heard. The Baptist speaks of the joy of one who knows he is not the centre. Both are about the same thing: a life that has found its place because it has found the Son. The psalm sings that “the Lord takes pleasure in his people”.
Setting.
These are the closing verses of the letter. Verse 13 gave the purpose of the writing, and what follows gathers up some final assurances: God hears us, we can pray for one another, and we know whose we are. The three solemn “we know” sentences of vv. 18–20 sum up the faith of a community that has been shaken by those who left it.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” (5:14)
“According to his will” does not make prayer smaller. It is the prayer Jesus taught: your will be done. The one who prays this way is never unheard.
“All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not mortal.” (5:17)
Sin is never treated as nothing, yet not all sin is the same. There is always room to pray, and God “will give life” through the prayer of a brother or sister (5:16).
“He is the true God and eternal life.” (5:20)
The Greek “he” (houtos) could point back to the Father or to Jesus Christ, the name just mentioned. Many Fathers and modern commentators take it as Jesus Christ, which would make this one of the clearest statements of his divinity in the New Testament. Others refer it to the Father. The verse in either case sets the Son wholly within the truth of God.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism states that the distinction between mortal and venial sin is “already evident in Scripture”, and cites this passage (CCC 1854). Idolatry, it says, consists in divinizing what is not God, and it remains a constant temptation to faith (CCC 2113). So the last verse of the letter is not an old warning about temples alone. Money, power and even the self can be set in God's place.
Setting.
After the night conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus moves into the Judean countryside, and for a time he and John the Baptist are both baptizing. The evangelist later adds that it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized (4:2). The place of Aenon is not known for certain; its name probably comes from a word for springs. The discussion in v. 25 is among fellow Jews about purification, a serious religious matter. It is not an attack on the Jewish people. John's disciples are simply worried that their teacher is losing his following.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven.” (3:27)
The cure for envy. If everything is a gift, there is no competition among those who have received.
“The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled.” (3:29)
His followers bring him bad news, and he answers with joy. One who has waited so long for the bridegroom can only be glad when he comes.
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”” (3:30)
These are among the Baptist's last words in this Gospel, and they could stand over any Christian ministry. The one who points to Christ succeeds when people look away from him and towards Christ.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the Baptist rejoices in being “the friend of the bridegroom” (CCC 523), and that when the Church celebrates his birth and martyrdom she unites herself to his desire: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (CCC 524). St Augustine noticed that the Church keeps John's birth at the time when the days begin to shorten and Christ's at the time when they begin to lengthen, and saw this verse in it (in substance).
What is the sin John tells us he does not ask us to pray about?
John does not name it. Many scholars think he has in mind a settled rejection of Christ, such as that of those who left the community. He says, “I do not say that you should pray about that”; this is not a command against praying. The Church prays for all sinners. The Catechism teaches that there are no limits to the mercy of God, but that one who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting rejects the forgiveness of sins (CCC 1864). Nobody should conclude that a particular person is beyond prayer.