Jan. 10, 2015 Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 3:22-30. Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, where he spent some time with them baptizing. John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was an abundance of water there, and people came to be baptized, for John had not yet been imprisoned. Now a dispute arose between the disciples of John and a Jew about ceremonial washings. So they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing and everyone is coming to him. John answered and said, No one can receive anything except what has been given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said (that) I am not the Messiah, but that I was sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegrooms voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease. Saturday after Epiphany Commentary of the day Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church Sermons on Saint John’s Gospel, no.14, 5 ; CL 36, 143-144 He must increase; I must decrease May the glory of God increase in us and our own glory decrease that even our glory may increase in God! For this is what the apostle says, this is what Holy Scripture says: Let whoever glories, glory in the Lord (1Cor 1,31). Will you glory in yourself? You will grow; but grow worse in your evil. And someone who grows worse is actually growing less. Let God, then, who is ever perfect, grow, and let him grow in you. For the more you know and understand God, the more God seems to be growing in you even though he himself does not grow, being ever perfect. You understood something a little yesterday, you understand better today, tomorrow you will understand even more: it is the very light of God increasing in you as if thus God, who is ever perfect, were increasing. Someone is blind whose eyes have just been healed. This person begins to see a glimmer of light, the next day he sees more, and the third day still more. To such a person the light would seem to grow; yet the light is perfect, whether he see it or not. This is also how it is with the inner self: it makes progress in God and God appears to be increasing in it, whereas it is growing less in itself so as to fall from its own glory and arise in the glory of God.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 02:28:21 +0000
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