Today’s gospel highlights John the Baptist’s humility. He is not jealous of Jesus’ popularity or worried that his followers will leave him for Jesus. Rather, he understands his vocation as the one who prepares the way for Jesus. This passage relates to earlier in the Gospel of John when John tells the priests and Levites that he is not worthy to untie the thongs of Jesus’ sandals. While the Synoptic Gospels describe John the Baptist’s death, he disappears in John’s Gospel after his joy was made complete in this scene.

If we can imagine John as a best man in a 21st-century wedding, he would calm the bridegroom’s nerves, have the rings ready at the altar, and deliver a fantastic speech at the reception before quietly stepping away so the guests could celebrate the bride and groom.

John the Baptist’s humility reminds me of an interview that I heard with a priest years ago. The priest shared that he prays to be humiliated daily. This prayer shocked me. At the time, I was a middle school teacher. While my students brought me joy and I was never humiliated, I had countless opportunities to be humbled. Whether I taught a failed math lesson or wore a cringey shirt and tie combination, students did not hold back their opinions.

Now, I work with law students who are too mature and respectful to make fun of me. In this environment, it is easy to seek to be loved, praised, and preferred over others, but John the Baptist reminds me not to fear being small. It is this smallness that makes room for God. The Litany of Humility, which echoes his words, offers an alternative prayer: “That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase, and I may decrease.”