BishopBarron|他应该兴盛，我却应该衰微
发布日期：2017-12-15
|Bishop Barron
翻译|Carrie
翻译|Carrie
2017-12-14
朋友们，今天的福音肯定了洗者若翰的伟大之处。老实说，你若不了解若翰，就无法真正了解耶稣，所以四位福音书作者都以施洗者的故事作为耶稣生平的序曲。
若翰没有哗众取宠，反而，他说自己只是一种铺垫、一个先驱，为主铺路的先知。他总结起以色列人的历史，但强调该历史是开放式的、未完成的。
因此，当他突然看见前来受洗的耶稣，他说，“看，天主的羔羊。” 那一刻该是多么震撼人心。当时活在公元一世纪的以色列人没有谁不懂他的意思：看，这位来做祭品的人。看，这份供品将总结、完善、成全圣殿。还有，看，这逾越节羔羊将总结逾越节的意义并使之得以成为现实。
因而，若翰说，“他应该兴盛，我却应该衰微。” 换句话说，序曲已尽，正剧登场。以色列的筹备工作已经完成，现在救世主将君临天下。
Friends, today’s Gospel affirms the greatness of John the Baptist. I think it’s fair to say that you cannot really understand Jesus without understanding John, which is precisely why all four Evangelists tell the story of the Baptist as a kind of overture to the story of Jesus.
John did not draw attention to himself. Rather, he presented himself as a preparation, a forerunner, a prophet preparing the way of the Lord. He was summing up much of Israelite history, but stressing that this history was open-ended, unfinished.
And therefore, how powerful it was when, upon spying Jesus coming to be baptized, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God." No first-century Israelite would have missed the meaning of that: behold the one who has come to be sacrificed. Behold the sacrifice, which will sum up, complete, and perfect the Temple. Moreover, behold the Passover lamb, who sums up the whole meaning of that event and brings it to fulfillment.
And this is why John says, "He must increase and I must decrease." In other words, the overture is complete; and now the great opera begins. The preparatory work of Israel is over, and now the Messiah will reign.