Friday in the First Week of Ordinary Time, January 17, 2024

Mark 2, 1-12

When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home. Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them. They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth” – he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.” He rose, picked up his mat at once, and went away in the sight of everyone. They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

“Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him.”  The initiative of the men carrying the paralytic on his mat is striking.  They persisted in their plan to bring him before the Lord even when they received no help or encouragement from those around them.  Not bothering to complain or make demands, they concentrated on what they wanted to do and accomplished it.  In this way, they acted as the man’s servants, whatever their actual relationship to him may have been.  The lazy servant stands around and makes excuses and complains at the slightest sign of difficulty.  He does not want to do his job and so looks for opportunities to give up and blame others for his failure.  But the industrious servant sees options and makes many attempts until his object is obtained.  This is the difference between the lost soul and the saint.  Jesus makes this clear in Matthew 25 when he gives the words of the damned at the time of their judgment: “Lord, when did we see you hungry and not feed you?”  The outlook of the saint is always, “Look at all the ways I can serve the Lord today!”

“When Jesus saw their faith.”  Now, you and I can see faith indirectly through the outward actions of a person, but even so we are making an assumption.  In this case, how would we know the men were not being paid a lot of money to help the paralytic in this case?  But the Lord Jesus “saw” or “recognized” their faith — that is, their belief that he could heal this man.  He looked into their hearts and saw what was truly there.  It seems very likely that they had come some distance because some days earlier, the Lord had healed all the sick in the town and its environs and then gone away to preach.  Word of his power traveled through the country meanwhile and over the course of days many who lived several miles away came across the country.  Thus, when Jesus “saw” the faith of the men who carried the paralytic, he saw them laboriously hauling him from a great distance for several days.  He saw their single-hearted devotion to this man.  He saw the suffering they had willingly endured for him.  It is as much for them as for the paralytic that the Lord did what he did next.

“Child, your sins are forgiven.” The paralytic was brought for the healing of his body, but the Lord grants the healing of his soul.  The paralytic asks for a crust of bread and the Lord provides him with a feast.  This reminds us of how the Lord fed the large crowds.  The people would have been more than satisfied with a little food, enough to strengthen them for their journey home.  And yet he offered them more than they could eat.  He shows his willingness to answer our prayers and even to go beyond them to answer those desires which we dare not voice even to ourselves.  In forgiving the man’s sins, the Lord also shows the higher nature of the soul than the body and how our care for our souls ought to greatly exceed that which we spend on our bodies.  The Lord’s restoration of the man’s ability to walk comes across in this account as almost incidental, and is accomplished mainly to provide the sign of the greater, inward, healing he has received. This marks the beginning of the Lord’s campaign to teach the meaning of sin, its affects on the soul, and our need of forgiveness — which can only come from him.  The scribes understood right away the point he was advancing and so they challenged him: “Who but God alone can forgive sins?”  While a good question, they should have thought a little deeper: Only God can heal a paralytic.  Is this God?  If this is God, then of course he can forgive sins.  But they looked at Jesus — not at his works — and decided he could not be God.

The people did not fully understand what had taken place, but they saw the work Jesus performed and wondered at it.  What did it mean?  What did this powerful deed say about the one who performed it? “They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this.’ ”  The crowd wondered, showing that they were ready for faith.

The man walked the long way home, carrying his mat.  He must have kept it with him the rest of his life so that he could remember his once helpless state and the One who had raised him from it.

Thursday in the First Week of Ordinary Time, January 16, 2025

Mark 1, 40–45

A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.  He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.”  The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

We find in this Reading the essential elements of the prayer of intercession, that form of prayer in which we ask God for something for ourselves or for others.  First, “A leper came to Jesus.”  The one in need comes to the Lord Jesus for the cure of his terrible affliction.  So often we find ourselves in need and we respond by going into denial about it, or we assume that somehow it will take care of itself.  “And kneeling down begged him.”  We do not go before the Lord as an equal or as in any way deserving of his help.  We recognize him in our hearts as the omnipotent God.  “If you wish, you can make me clean.”  We make our plea to him with all the need and emotion we have.  We do not attempt to bargain with him, make a claim on our perceived merit, or flatter him.  We do not engage in flights of rhetoric.  Our prayer must be direct, simple, and from the heart.  St. Mark quotes the leper without any description or comment, but we should not imagine him as speaking to the Lord in the calm way it appears on the page.  This was a desperate man, sick, friendless, ashamed, hungry, homeless.  His prayer is made with tears and groans.  He hides nothing of his suffering, but comes to the Lord ad he is.  He most likely is calling out to him from a certain distance.  “The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.”  The Lord shows his power in his reply.  The answer to our prayer may not be apparent at first, but in our prayer we accept the answer he will give us, in the manner and at the time he chooses to give it to us.

The exchange between this leper and the Lord teaches us something else.  The leper says, “If you wish, you can make me clean.”  “If you wish” is not quite right.  The Greek has, “If you desire” or, “If you will”.  The leper poses his need to Jesus not as a matter of his power, but as a matter of his will, as if to say, “Your will be done.”  It is an acknowledgment of the supremacy of the divine will over all things and people.  It is also a confession of faith that the Lord can do whatever he wills.  And, finally, it is a sign that the leper will accept what the Lord’s will is for him.  The Lord replies, “I do will it. Be made clean.”  The Lord’s words indicate that he has only waited for the leper to approach him and to make his request before curing him.  That is, the Lord had an even greater desire to cure the man than the man had of being cured.

“Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.”  Jesus several times warns others against publicizing what he has done.  He will not accept testimony from just anyone.  Those whom he particularly warns he seems to regard as poor witnesses who would impede his work.  The Lord warns the demons he expels from telling people who he is — he will not be announced by them.  He also warns crowds who are only interested in a show of miracles not to tell about him because their stories will only attract others like themselves: people who will not listen to his teaching but who only want to see something novel.  In regards to this leper, we see how unreliable he is.  The Lord commands him to follow the law in regards to his cure, but he does not, and instead “he spread the report abroad”.  

We show ourselves as the Lord’s reliable witnesses by obeying his laws throughout our lives, and after praying for what we need, accepting his answer.

Wednesday in the First Week of Ordinary Time, January 15, 2025

Mark 1, 29-39

On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them. When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons. The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him. Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.” He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.” So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.

Today’s Gospel Reading follows that of yesterday, in which the Lord’s expelled a demon from a man in the synagogue.

Much can be deduced about Peter’s family in the first verse of today’s Reading: Peter was married; his mother-in-law was widowed, as she was living with Peter and not with her husband; she must not have had any sons because she would have lived with one of them rather than with her daughter and her daughter’s husband; and, Andrew lived with his brother, indicating that he was not married and had not quite reached the age for marriage.  We can also surmise that Peter’s wife was alive at the time — if she was dead, Peter would have remarried and his former mother-in-law would have to live elsewhere.

In general, St. Mark’s schematic-like depiction of the action shows the pattern of Christian prayer: those aware of a need pray to Jesus, trusting in his will to render assistance; the Lord attends to the need; the person who receives the help of Christ uses the gift he has received in order to serve him.  We notice here the instantaneous recovery.  The woman does not need to recuperate.  The Lord lifts her up to full health and she at once goes about serving him as though she had not just been near death.  The Lord is not some mere physician but God, the Creator of life.

The exorcism in the synagogue took place near midday and the news had time to spread to neighboring towns and villages.  People set out on foot, hastening before the wonder-worker departed.  The desperation of these sick and infirm shows clearly in the numbers that arrive and present themselves before him.  The courtyard that surrounded Peter’s house overflowed with them and with those who came to watch.

“He healed many.”  That is, he healed all who came to him, and there were many of them.  “He suffered them not to speak, because they knew him.”  The demons attempted to address him in various ways, seeking to weary him and getting him to give them some sign as to who he was, but the Lord would not accept the testimony of these evil creatures and so silenced them after they hailed him.  They did not know him but pretended to know him.

“Rising very early before dawn.”  The Lord began to heal after sunset when most people went to bed and then healed for some time, depriving himself of sleep since he intended to get up early in order to pray.  The Apostles likewise would have slept only a few hours.

“Simon and they that were with him.”  This would include Andrew and James and John.  Perhaps also Simon’s wife and her mother.  They went out into the wilderness outside their town in order to find him, for people continued to come to the house, some to listen to him and some to be healed.  

“All seek for thee.”  This brings to mind the words of St. Augustine: “You made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

“Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also.”  The Lord healed in his mercy, but the healings acted primarily as signs that God had come into the world and so the Lord moves on to other parts. He has only three years to preach the Gospel to Israel, and Capernaum counted only as one of very many towns: “He was preaching in their synagogues and in all Galilee and casting out devils.”  It is a reminder to the faithful that they should act on the Lord’s inspiration to repent and to perform good works now.  The work of our salvation is urgent.

Tuesday in the First Week of Ordinary Time, January 14, 2025

Mark 1, 21-28

Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

“Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught.”  St. Mark moves on quickly from his account of the Lord’s calling his first disciples, which took place just outside Capernaum on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  The lectionary translation of this verse omits the adverb “immediately”, which is present in the Greek text: “and immediately on the Sabbath he entered”.  Mark uses this adverb very frequently throughout his Gospel as a way of marking the beginning of a new action and of propelling the action forward.  This gives off a kind of breathless effect, as of a story tumbling out of a highly excited person.  “And taught”: the imperfect tense is in use here so that we have, “He was teaching”, an action which continued for some time.  With regard to the Lord teaching there we should keep in mind that the synagogue was at that time a place of discussion more than a place of worship, which was reserved for the Temple in Jerusalem.  Any adult male could teach or raise an issue.

“The people were astonished at his teaching.”  The Greek verb is very strong here: they were “thunderstruck” or “astounded”.  And this for two reasons.  The unstated reason is that these teachings came from a carpenter from Nazareth.  The stated reason: “For he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.”  An example of this teaching with authority: “You have heard that it was said to them of old: You shall not kill. And whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judgment.  But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5, 21-22).  Jesus acts as the author of the Law, not merely as its interpreter.  He completes — fulfills — the Law.

“In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit.”  This man may have dwelled in the town with the unclean spirit only manifesting on occasion, or the man may have kept to the open spaces outside the town, possibly haunting its graveyard or keeping to the shore, as the man possessed by Legion did (cf. Mark 5, 3).  On the occasion of the Lord teaching, the demon drove him into his presence in the synagogue in the way Legion forced the man they possessed to run up to him and adore him (cf. Mark 5, 6).  Although one would think the demons would flee before him rather than hasten to him, Satan did not at this time know for certain who or what Jesus was, though he had his suspicions.  He ordered his demons to test and probe in order to find out.  For this reason the demon in the synagogue cried out, “Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!”  In fact, the demon did not know, and “the Holy One of God” was general enough to mean a virtuous rabbi, a prophet, or even the Messiah.  

“Quiet! Come out of him!”  The Lord does not engage with the demon but rebukes him and commands him to exit the afflicted man.  We can readily imagine the scene: the Lord, standing straight, towering over the cringing man possessed by the demon, his stare unwavering, barking out his order with a clear, authoritative voice; the body of the man trembling, grunting, snarling, whining, crouched down like a cornered predator.  “The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.”  The Lord Jesus allows this convulsing and shouting in order to teach the people in the synagogue about the power and the horror of demons so that they would resist their temptations more resolutely.

“What is this? A new teaching with authority.”  This might also be translated, “A new teaching with power.”  The people see that his teaching is validated by the power he displays in his exorcism of the demon: “He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”  The Jewish rabbis had attempted to exorcise demons, but their elaborate methods had little effect.  Here, Jesus succeeds with a sharp command.  The Jews had good reason to be amazed.

“His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.”  We notice that Mark does not say that his fame spread throughout Judea too.  Those who lived in Judea saw Galilee as back-country, a world away from the center of their universe, Jerusalem.  The Judeans never forgave Jesus for being a Galilean: “A prophet does not arise from Galilee” (John 7, 52).

The demon, not knowing that Jesus was the only-begotten Son of God, obeyed his order with fear.  May we, who know who the Lord Jesus is, obey him as a sign of our love for him. 

Monday in the First Week of Ordinary Time, January 13, 2025

Mark 1, 14-20

After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”  As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Then they left their nets and followed him. He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.

After the Lord’s baptism by John in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit drove him out into the Judean wilderness where he fasted, prayed, and was tempted.  Subsequently he returned to the area where John continued to baptize.  He dwelt there for a time, likely taking shelter in the niches in the rocky ground there and, like John, subsisting on grasshoppers and wild honey.  During this time he met with his future Apostles Andrew and John the son of Zebedee.  Herod, provoked by his wife, finally sent his guards for John, and it is then that the Lord begins his Public Life in earnest.  We should note that the Lord does not first preach in Judea.  He goes back to Galilee.  The Lord waits until John the Baptist is arrested before he commences preaching in order to not seem in competition with him and also to show that he has come to fulfill what John said and did.  He returns to Galilee to show that he has not come only for the Judeans, who considered themselves the true Jews, but for those distant from Judea as well.

“This is the time of fulfillment.”  The time of fulfillment, when the Son of God would complete the Law and all of God’s promises of redemption.  “The Kingdom of God is at hand.”  The Greek has, The Kingdom of God has drawn near.  It has drawn near because mortal man, burdened by sin and bereft of grace, was helpless to approach it.  The proof that it has drawn near is that God himself has come down from heaven to earth.  “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”  The Gospel is the announcement that the Kingdom of God has drawn near.  It is as if Jesus were saying, Believe me when I tell you that the Kingdom of God has approached you.  And he demonstrates that it has through his miracles.

“He passed by the Sea of Galilee.”  Mark provides few details here, not even the name of the town in which he was staying at the time, which we know from other Gospels was Capernaum.  His account of the call of Simon Peter and Andrew is almost a schematic.  It strikes us as very abrupt.  We can surmise that the Roman Christians for whom Mark was writing were well-acquainted with this story from Peter’s own lips and so he saw no need to flesh it out.  “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  Now, apart from the unheard of action of the teacher calling for students (students, rather, sought out and hired their teacher), this is a very strange invitation.  The Lord does not define the odd term “fishers of men” for them or try to make it sound exciting or otherwise attractive.  And he calls Peter and Andrew and James and John at a most inopportune time, while they were finishing up for the night and were mending their nets.  It is almost as if the Lord was trying not to gain any disciples.  We might think back to the Prophet Elijah, who challenged the prophets of Baal to pour enormous quantities of water on his offering to God so that it would seem impossible for it to be burnt, yet “the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the holocaust, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench” (1 Kings 18, 38).  Likewise, the fishermen left the lives that they had known at the word of a carpenter from Nazareth who had yet to perform his first miracle.  This tells us of the strength of the Lord’s personality, which drew people to him, and the power of his preaching, which made his hearers followers.  This also tells us of the immense faith of these first followers in the Lord Jesus.  We ask their intercession that we may possess this as well.

The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Sunday, January 12, 2025

Luke 3, 15–16; 21–22

The people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”  After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

“Now the people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ.”  Through his righteousness, John resembled the long-awaited Messiah.  Through our own righteousness and sanctity we can nudge people into thinking of Jesus.  “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.”  Jesus tells us, “Amen I say to you, there hath not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11, 11), and even he is undeserving of carrying our Lord’s sandals.  That should give us pause.  And yet, through our response to the Lord’s call to faith in him, he will allow us to do this and, indeed, one day to touch the wounds in his hands and side which he incurred for our sake.

“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”  John uses water; Jesus uses fire.  This is to show the immense difference between the sign of John’s baptism and the reality that is Christ’s.  “His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn.”  John speaks of how we will face the Lord at the end of our lives when we have been reaped from the field of this life at the time when we should have matured spiritually, and at the end of the world when he brings his own into heaven.  “But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”  The chaff is good for nothing once the wheat is harvested and is to be burned.  While actual chaff burns quickly and is no more, those who did not obey the will of God on earth and so proved themselves useless to him will be burned forever: “Their fire is not extinguished” (Mark 9, 47).

“Heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.”  The ancient Jews believed that the roof of the sky was a crystal sphere in which  the stars were set, and under which the sun and moon went around the earth.  If the sky was “rent asunder”, as it is written in the Greek text of Mark 1, 10, we should imagine it as a cracked dinner plate rather than a rent curtain.  The majesty of heaven would have blasted through the tear in a nearly blinding display.  Down from the heavens comes not destruction but the Holy Spirit “like a dove”.  The form of the dove recalls Genesis 8, 11, when the dove returning to Noah with the olive leaf signified reconciliation between God and the human race.  The “tear” in the heavens brings to mind another tear: “And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Mark 15, 38).  In both cases, the rending signifies the opening of heaven to the human race, the sign of this at the beginning of the Lord’s public life, and the actual opening at the end.  The Holy Spirit “descended” upon the Lord st this time.   Since the Father and the Son are in the unity of the Holy Spirit from all eternity, the Holy Spirit does not “descend” upon him here, but the sign as well as the voice from heaven show the union of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”  The Father identifies Jesus of Nazareth as his Son and also expresses his pleasure in him.  The Father’s pleasure in his Son is from all eternity, and it is announced here in order to draw the human race to him.  The Father also speaks this way to all who are baptized and so become his adopted children: “You are my beloved son”, “You are my beloved daughter”.  

Saturday after Epiphany, January 11, 2025

John 3, 22-30

Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, where he spent some time with them baptizing. John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was an abundance of water there, and people came to be baptized, for John had not yet been imprisoned. Now a dispute arose between the disciples of John and a Jew about ceremonial washings. So they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing and everyone is coming to him.” John answered and said, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. 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. So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease.”

“He spent some time with them baptizing.”  Only in St. John’s Gospel do we learn that the Lord Jesus engaged in baptizing though, as it is made clear in John 4, 2: “Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples.”  His doing so must have given the impression that he followed John the Baptist.  And this is what leads to the disciples of John to point out that “everyone is coming to him.”  The disciple should never overshadow his master.  Perhaps they expected that John the Baptist, apprised of this news, would advise his disciple to move further downstream or in some other way lessen his ministry.  

“Now a dispute arose between the disciples of John and a Jew about ceremonial washings”.  The Evangelist makes a curious distinction here between the disciples of John, who were Jews, and “a Jew”.  The Greek word could be translated either as “Judean” or as “Jewish” (as in, a Jewish man).  It is possible that the Evangelist wanted to make it clear that the man was a Judean and not a Galilean.  But he also uses the word as an alternative for “Pharisee”.  This would make sense, for the Pharisees had great concern for ceremonial washings.  It would be interesting to know what position the Baptist’s disciples took on this matter but the Evangelist moves past it to get to the meat of his account, John the Baptist’s testimony to the Lord Jesus.  Still, we can surmise that this Jew was saying that baptisms should be done in purified water, not river water, confusing John’s baptism for the washings prescribed by the Pharisees.

“No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven.”  John the Baptist answers the concern of his disciples, saying that if everyone is going to Jesus, it is the work of God.  And it is fitting that this is so: “You yourselves can testify that I said that I am not the Christ, but that I was sent before him.”  That is, that I am not the Messiah, the Anointed One.  The Lord never claimed to be “the Christ” because the term had become mixed up with the expectation of a national deliverer.  He himself preferred the title “the Som of Man”, which, as used in the Book of Daniel and in the apocryphal though popular Book of Enoch, was understood as purely religious.  John the Baptist indicates that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, but he understands the term correctly, as the one anointed as the Savior of the world. 

“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.”  John uses “bride “ in the sense that the Prophets used it: for the Chosen People, expanded now to include Gentile believers.  But the Prophets understood the Bridegroom as God, so John makes it plain that Jesus is God.  John himself is the “best man” — the Greek has “the friend of the bridegroom, who would send out invitations to the wedding feast that he had arranged at the groom’s house.  So here John shows his understanding of his role: his call to baptism is an invitation tο the Jews for the arrival of the Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus.

“So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease.”  John the Baptist emphasizes his joy at the arrival of the Lord Jesus and compares it to the joy of the friend of the bridegroom when he hears the announcement from the street that he is coming with his bride.  This is the moment he has been preparing and working for.  His friend, whom he loves, has brought his bride with him and now they will celebrate. The friend of the bridegroom has bustled about the house, seemingly everywhere at once, making sure that all is ready and that the servants have everything they need.  But when the bridegroom arrives, his job is done and he recedes into the background.  “He must increase, etc.” The Greek verb means “it is necessary” and “it is inevitable”.  John is calming his disciples, telling them that this is what is supposed to happen.  And this is why he can say that his joy is now made “complete”.

These last words of John sum up the spiritual life.  As we grow, and as our faith in Jesus and our love for him grows, he becomes our everything.  We see that we exist solely for him.  This is the meaning of Psalm 123, 2:

“As the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, as the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress: so are our eyes unto the Lord our God.”  Our supreme model in this is the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose intercession we should seek for this to be accomplished in our lives.