He must increase in me, but I must decrease

The Emmaus disciples said to Jesus: “Lord, stay with us, the day is almost over.” The day of our life is almost over too, and only one thing is needed: that the Lord may open our eyes as He opened the eyes of the disciples of Emmaus, that we may see Him both in ourselves and in our brethren. If I then see my brother’s fault which repeats itself, I will not judge him in my thoughts but I will see Jesus whom he hurts and the fact that he hurt Jesus will remind me of how many times I had hurt my Lord. May at that moment – instead of me judging my brother – an angel wound my heart and fill it with compassion and love for Jesus whom everyone boycotts and scorns. May each of us realize: I have received more light from God than others and yet I hurt Jesus even more than they do – and realizing this, I will be with Jesus again, I will come down to the prison of my heart and offer Him my tears of sorrow to drink, and at the same time I will also see Jesus in my brother who was blinded by the old self at the moment. He behaved selfishly and proudly and hurt me, but now I am thankful for it because it brought me back to Jesus. However, he also hurt Jesus who is in him, and right at this moment I want to ask Jesus to forgive my brother and to forgive me as well. Jesus says: “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you” or “within you”. Jesus is my King, but unless my soul dies like a grain of wheat, Jesus cannot be my King, for my sin, my ego, my old self is my king then. John the Baptist calls: “He must increase in me, but I must decrease.” This is a process, the way of following Christ, seeking the kingdom of God in myself and in my brother. Then I will be able to remove the speck from my brother’s eye without hurting him. And he likewise will be able to see Christ not only in himself but in me too, and when the hour of death comes, we shall see Him not only in the light of faith but also in the light of God’s glory.

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