NO VACANCY

The gospel passage for this morning‘s mass (Saturday after the epiphany) Has John the Baptist telling his disciples “He must increase, I must decrease“(Jn 3:30). I used that verse as my early morning meditation. 

Then at morning prayer we sang Psalm 24, which had this line “Let him enter the King of Glory!” That got me thinking. What if the Lord were to come to my heart and ask to enter? 

Would he find any room there or would he find instead a “No Vacancy” sign? Would all the space be already taken up by my artificial self: my self image, my pride, my preoccupation with work and so on? That’s the “me” that must decrease. (Thomas Merton calls that my “false self.“)

The situation is what some would call a zero-sum game: The space in my heart will always be filled.  So Christ’s presence there will increase exactly to the extent to which my “ false self” decreases and leaves Him room.

We all know very well how this “decreasing” works in practice. Through humility, gentleness, and serving others in love, our artificial ego-centered self shrinks so that the Lord has room to “increase“ in our hearts.

So, as the Christmas season comes to a close with the Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord on Sunday, January 12,  we should be listening to the words of John the Baptist and setting about making room for Christ in our Hearts by the way we act toward others.

Let us all pray that “He May increase as we decrease.”