Note: On Saturdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
Read them out loud right now, wherever you are, the words of 
John the Baptist in John 3:30 (NRSVCE:
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
If this didn’t give you the shivers or goosebumps, read them out loud again, right now.
It is John the Baptist’s final witness, this man sent to prepare the way. Jesus had begun His public ministry, and John knew that meant his own work was done. And so he… decreased.
The lives of saints are full of stories of people who served their 
purpose… then faded from public view. Consider the life of the French nun Catherine Labouré, who shared the Blessed Virgin’s instructions for the Miraculous Medal of Our Lady. Public devotion to the medal began almost as soon as it was struck. Bernadette and Lucia spent most of their years after Lourdes
and Fatima in convents.
If you’ve had a taste of public evangelization, you may find it personally enjoyable. But there will come a day, if you listen closely, when you are called to decrease because you have completed your mission. And that day is not a day for sorrow or mourning (or at least, not much of it); it is a day for faith-filled joy, because you’ve prepared His way. Well done, good and faithful—and, hopefully, humble—servant. Now, let Him take over.
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