"He must increase; I must decrease"

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 bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete.
He must increase; I must decrease."


Commentary of the day : Duns Scotus Erigena
"He must increase; I must decrease"

«John was not the light but came to testify to the light» (Jn 1,8). The forerunner of the Light was not the Light. So why is he popularly known as a «burning lamp» (Jn 5,35) and «morning star»? He was indeed a burning and shining lamp, but the flame he burned with, the light with which he shone, was not his own. He was the morning star, but he did not draw his own light from himself: the grace of him of whom he was the forerunner burned and shone within him. He was not the light but he participated in the light and what shone in him and through him did not come from him...

No creature, in fact, whether endowed with reason or intellect, is light of its own accord in its own substance. It shares in the one, true Light, the substantial Light that is everywhere and in everything that our minds see shining.