Missionary Complementarity!

Saturday, January 10, 2025

1 Jn 5:14-21; Jn 3:22-30

Today’s Gospel highlights the complementary mission that Jesus and John embody in their ministry.

In the Gospel, we find Jesus taking up John’s work of baptism. We may read the baptismal ministry of Jesus as a sign of continuity whereby Jesus will continue and fulfill what John started. However, Jesus’ act symbolizes something more. It is Jesus’ humble way of recognizing the goodness and importance of the work of John. 

If Jesus reveals his goodwill and generosity through the baptism he administers, John repeats his testimony about Jesus and reiterates his role of being Jesus’ forerunner. The ‘best man’ imagery is another example that clearly reveals John’s testimony of Jesus. John unambiguously makes it clear that ‘He [Jesus] must increase, but I [John] must decrease.’

What we can witness in the passage is the mutual admiration and positive complementarity that Jesus and John have toward each other.

Out of respect and admiration towards his predecessor, Jesus continues the mission of John. In a gesture that reveals his complete surrender and humility, John articulates the uniqueness of Jesus. 

In what it exemplifies, today’s Gospel becomes an authentic example of the ideal attitude that should characterize God’s ministers and how God’s mission itself should prosper. 

God’s ministers must uphold one another so that through such mutuality and love, what thrives and prospers is God’s mission. On the contrary, unhealthy competition between God’s ministers will only breed needless animosity, which will affect God’s mission. 

Jesus and John show that even our missionary relationship is oriented toward the prospering of God’s mission. When our lives are meant to give glory to God, we also must glorify God in our mission. 

By what John started and what Jesus continued, they each glorified God. Their examples invite us to do the same. 

Let us pray that by learning from the relational examples of Jesus and John, we may excel in our missionary complementarity. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar