Liturgy Lesson for St. John Baptist: He must increase, but I must decrease
June 21, 2008
Today, we commemorate St. John Baptist, and, in contrast to many of the saints’ days, we observe his nativity (birth) rather than his death. Called in some places the “Christmas of Summer” this event celebrates a miracle birth involving a supernatural and miraculous intervention by God in the pregnancy and birth. St. John Baptist was the last and greatest of the prophets and was both our Lord’s cousin and His herald, as documented in the early chapters of SS. Luke and Matthew. He was the first to proclaim the Lamb of God and actually ministered Baptism to our Lord, an act of humility on Jesus’ part, and certainly an awesome and highly emotional act of obedience on St. John’s. St. John said, speaking of the coming ministry of the Messiah words we can live our devotional lives by: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” St. Augustine renders a strikingly mystical interpretation of these words when he notes that beginning with the celebration of the Nativity of St. John Baptist, the days actually decrease in length, whereas, beginning with the Nativity of Our Lord, they lengthen. This is the lesson on this day, then—He must increase, and we diminish—for the Christian, this means invoking and assimilating Christ’s nature, more and more, in favor of our own fallen selves—lives changed by His Presence!
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