*📖GOSPEL*
_Someone you do not know stands among you._
*🕯️A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to John 1:19-28*
This was the witness of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, 'Who are you?'
He declared, he did not deny but declared, 'I am not the Christ.'
So they asked, 'Then are you Elijah?' He replied, 'I am not.' 'Are you the Prophet?' He answered, 'No.'
So they said to him, 'Who are you? We must take back an answer to those who sent us. What have you to say about yourself?'
So he said, 'I am, as Isaiah prophesied: A voice of one that cries in the desert: Prepare a way for the Lord. Make his paths straight!'
Now those who had been sent were Pharisees,
and they put this question to him, 'Why are you baptising if you are not the Christ, and not Elijah, and not the Prophet?'
John answered them, 'I baptise with water; but standing among you -- unknown to you-
is the one who is coming after me; and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandal.'
This happened at Bethany, on the far side of the Jordan, where John was baptising.
*The Gospel of the Lord*
I believe in God, /....