Whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie

1 Jn 2,22-28; Ps 97; Jn 1,19-28
2 JANUARY
The Church, Mother and Teacher in the purest faith in Christ Jesus, Saviour, Redeemer, Way, Truth, Life, Grace, Light and Resurrection, wants her children to know everything about the Eternal Word of the Father who became flesh and came to live among us. For this reason, in the days immediately after Christmas and Epiphany, before Ordinary Time begins, in her liturgy, she is fully committed to showing the face of her Spouse in the fullness of her eternal, divine and human truth. The path behind Christ cannot be run through, if already from the beginning there are uncertainties and confusions about his Person and his Mission in the heart. Knowing already the mystery of Jesus in its true essence, the Gospel will be the one to add details to details that will make the truth of the Christ of God and of the Lord of glory ever more luminous and shining. Walking with one mistake behind Lord Jesus you are at risk of making the whole journey null and vain. You can lose a whole Liturgical Year if you do not put your hand and heart to come into possession of the brightest light. Let us recall what the Book of Qoelet teaches: “A dead fly spoils the perfumer’s ointment”. A single falsehood about Jesus spoils the whole mystery of God, of the Church, of Salvation and of Redemption.

The truth of Christ is founded on testimony. The first witness of the Messiah of God is John the Baptist. He was sent by God to bear witness to the light. John’s first word is not about Jesus, but about himself: I am not the Prophet to come. I am not Elijah that you await. I am not the Christ promised by God. I am only the voice that invites every man to prepare the way for the Lord who comes. Speaking of himself, John says that between him and the Messiah there is an infinite distance that is unbridgeable. He is not even worthy to bow before the Christ of God to untie the laces of his sandals. He is before John. The before of the Messiah is eternity, divinity and his being God. The Messiah is the Only Son of the Father who became flesh. Divinity belongs to Christ the Lord by nature and essence. Just as eternity belongs to him by nature and by essence. He is naturally, substantially, really and truly God. He is God from God, Light from Light, generated, not created and of the same substance as the Father. This is the before of Jesus. It is an eternal and divine before. Without this before, Jesus would be only a man, a great, a very great man, but only a man. Instead, Jesus in his Person is God. But He is not a God without God, or God against God. But he is God always in contemplation and in obedience to the Father.

And this is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites (to him) to ask him, “Who are you?” he admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, “I am not the Messiah.” So they asked him, “What are you then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you have to say for yourself?” He said: “I am ‘the voice of one crying out in the desert, “Make straight the way of the Lord,”‘ as Isaiah the prophet said.” Some Pharisees were also sent. They asked him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.” This happened in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Every man is obliged to know who he is. He is not God. He has not in him the sources of life. He has neither eternity and nor divinity. His duration on earth is a breath. A moment before he is, a moment later the is no more. This is his greatness. He is always attracted to evil, which governs him as a hard master. He believes he can rule heavens and earth and he is not the master of even one of his own thoughts. Before Christ Jesus he must bow: Jesus is God, Eternal, Immortal, Lord, Almighty, Creator, Life, Light, Truth, Holiness, Justice, Peace, Charity and Grace. He is all this by divine nature, but also by the gift of the Father to his human nature, to which he has delivered himself. All God has placed himself in the hands and in the heart of the humanity of his Only Son.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints ensure that every man confesses the full truth of Christ Jesus.