In his homily for the feast of John the Baptist’s birth, Pope Francis emphasized that a true Christian puts oneself aside in order for God to be seen, stating that John is a key example for our time. “A Christian does not announce himself, he announces another, prepares the way for another: the Lord,” the pope said June 24. He said to those present in the Vatican’s Saint Martha guesthouse that the cousin of Jesus had a threefold vocation: to prepare the way for the messiah, to discern who he was and to diminish himself so that others would follow Jesus. Calling to mind how many began to follow John because “his words were strong” and went “to the heart,” the pope noted that although John could have been tempted “to believe that he was important, he did not fall.” Instead, when asked whether or not he was the messiah John, replied “I am the voice, only the voice” and “I am preparing the way of the Lord.” This is the first vocation of the Baptist, to “prepare the people, to prepare the hearts of the people for the encounter with the Lord," the pontiff said. The second part of John’s vocation was “to discern from among so many good people, who the Lord was,” he continued, noting how “the Spirit revealed this to him and he had the courage of saying: ‘This is the one. This is the Lamb of God, he who takes away the sins of the world.’” Pope Francis noted that when John declared that “This is the one! And more worthy than me!” the disciples left him and followed Jesus. “He must increase, but I must decrease,” the pontiff said, adding that “this was the more difficult stage for John, because the Lord had a style that he had not imagined.” Referring to how John was imprisoned at the end of his life and how he sent his disciples to confirm with Jesus whether he really was the messiah, Pope Francis noted how “he suffered not only the darkness of the cell, but the darkness in his heart: ‘But, will it be this one? Did I make a mistake?’” It was not clear if Jesus was the messiah, because he came in a much different way than expected, the pope said. However, since John “was a man of God, he asked his disciples to go to (Jesus) and ask: ‘But, is it really you, or should we wait for another?’” “Three vocations in one man: to prepare, to discern, to let the Lord grow and to diminish himself,” the pope said, stating that it is “also beautiful to think of the Christian vocation like this.” A true Christian does not proclaim himself, but rather the Lord, the pope said.
“A Christian should know how to discern, should know how to discern the truth from that which seems true and is not: a man of discernment," he said. “And a Christian should be a man who can step aside, because the Lord will grow in the heart and soul of others.”
