Disclaimer: I am a huge fan of John the Baptist (JTB, as I like to say). As a Type A hippie-wannabe, I dig his free-flowing locks and his penchant for berry and locust consumption.
As a campus minister, however, I am inspired above all by the way JTB embraces his role. He has only two areas of focus: 1) “the one who sent [him] to baptize with water,” i.e. God, and 2) the one he baptized, in whom he clearly witnesses the Spirit, i.e. Jesus.
It was never about him. JTB listened deep within for the guidance of God’s voice and followed it boldly, blazing a trail for Jesus. When Jesus emerged, JTB humbly stepped aside, striving not for his own acclaim, but only to magnify the Spirit of God uniquely present in Jesus. That is good ministry.
Who are the teachers/ministers/guides in my life who have blazed the trail for me?
—Katie Davis is a former member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and JVC Magis currently working as a Chaplain and Religious Studies teacher at Saint Ignatius College Prep in Chicago. She serves on the Advisory Board for Jesuit Connections in Chicago and the Chicago Women’s Team for the Ignatian Spirituality Project.
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