In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Today we hear from the Gospel these important words from the Prophet and the Forerunner John when he is talking about the Saviour because people are addressing the Forerunner mistakenly thinking that he is the Saviour. He says that he is not. Not only does he say that he is not the Saviour, he also says most importantly: “He must increase, and I must decrease”. This is an important word for us all to remember all the time because the way of the world is anything but this saying. The way of the world is: I must increase, and everything else must decrease. Especially, God should be put in His place so that He doesn’t get in my way, and bother me and my life. That’s more or less how people treat the Lord.

The attitude of the Forerunner is absolutely our pattern as believers. Christ must increase in everything, and I must decrease. This “I” doesn’t mean that I have to disappear as a person or anything. It means that my rebellious will, my will against His will, not in harmony with His will, must decrease so that Christ will be all in all in everything in my life. This increase of Christ means increase of love. That is what God is. That is WHO HE IS – love. If there is going to be “increase”, it has to be increase of love, because where love is, there, of course, is also Christ.

You can see, also, the result of the exact putting into practice of this “I must decrease” in the Acts of the Apostles. In the passage in which we encounter the Apostles Peter, and John today, they have just finished healing a man who was paralysed, and sitting outside the temple begging. When he is asking for alms, the Apostles Peter, and John come to him. "Fixing his eyes on him" the Apostle Peter says: “Silver, and gold have I none, but such as I have, I give to you. In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up, and walk” (Acts 3:4, 6). And he does. He arises, and jumps up. His ankles, his feet, his legs are all instantly made whole. Up he gets, and leaps around praising God.

Then, in today’s passage, the Apostle is telling people what this means: It is not I, the Apostle Peter, or I, the Apostle John, who does this. It is Jesus Christ. The Apostle Peter refers everything to Jesus Christ. Everything. All the Apostles do the same thing. They are always referring everything to Jesus Christ. The Apostles knew their own weaknesses. They remembered very well (what we just experienced a week ago) how they were timid, afraid, ran away, and so forth. They certainly didn’t forget it. Even when the Grace of the all-holy Spirit filled them, and they were given Grace to do amazing things, they still remembered their own weakness, and they remembered that it is only by the Grace of the Holy Spirit, and by the love of Jesus Christ, that we are able to do anything good.

It’s very good for us, also, to remember this. If we do any good, it is because of the Lord working in us. It is His love at work in us. Certainly He gives us gifts, and we are responsible for exercising those gifts, and developing those gifts,but not apart from Him. It’s not just about me. It is always, everything, to the glory of Jesus Christ.

For instance, Bach. What a gift God gave that man. Bach is not alone, for there are others of the same calibre. However, because he had twenty-two children, I suppose that is particularly impressive. When you have a family of twenty-two children, and you can still do this, you have to have not only a very strong wife, and a very orderly household, but you have to have somehow the ability to focus yourself, and to allow the Lord to produce this through your heart. An average human being (even the most gifted human being, I think) in the atmosphere of twenty-two children, would not be able to do what Bach did unless he had put into practice already exactly what the Apostle is talking about, and what the Forerunner is talking about. Giving glory to the Saviour in everything must come first. Then all sorts of amazing things can occur. I hope that I, myself, can learn a lesson from these examples, and from these words today.

Let us do our best to allow the Lord to increase (and our egos, separate from Him, to decrease). Let us allow ourselves to become our true selves living in harmony with Him. The way of Christ is not like the Buddhist way where you disappear as a person or as a distinct creature or something, where the ideal is just that you disappear. This is the opposite of the way of Christ. The way of Christ is simply to understand that when our wills are contrary to God’s way, then, that way is death. We kill ourselves when our way is contrary to the Lord’s love. His love is life. If we go contrary to it, we go into the way of death. The way of Christ is health. If we go in the opposite way, we go in the way of illness, sickness, and other sorts of things.

Harmony in His love brings health, life, strength, hope, joy, peace, and all of those fruits of the Holy Spirit. It always brings these things. It always allows each human being to become truly him- or herself as the Lord has created us to be. That’s the main purpose of our decreasing this willfulness, this scatteredness, and allowing the Lord to increase in our hearts, so that we can become our real selves.

Certain authors, like C S Lewis in the secular world with their stories, actually are showing us allegorical examples of how we become our real selves. It’s good for us to look at them from time to time, too, because they help us understand this. It is not that we are supposed to disappear or become nothing. We are supposed to become harmony and in our unity with the Lord, far more substantial than we can imagine ourselves being. We are to become substantial like the Apostle Peter, like the Apostle John, whose prayers raised that man, and who did other amazing, and wonderful things to the glory of God.

Let us do the amazing things that the Lord has given us to do for His glory, for the life and salvation of His creation, and glorify Him in everything: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

† Archdiocese of Canada - Orthodox Church in America