SUMMER SOLSTICE 2023: “He must increase.  I must decrease.”

Today is the Summer Solstice.  From now, our northern hemispheric days get shorter, as the world’s tilt starts changing our daily/seasonal clocks.

I was so aware of how the days were changing while I was in Rome, especially because I would post the sunrise and sunset and the Ave Maria.

Today, in Rome, the sunrise was at 05:32 and the sunset was at 20:31.  The Ave Maria bells was to ring at 21:15.

An ancient Augustinian sermon made a connection between the Birth of the Lord, when the days go from shortest to getting longer, and the Birth of the Baptist, whose feast falls near the Summer Solstice.

So let both their deaths also speak of these two things: “It is necessary for him to grow, but for me to diminish.” The one grew on the Cross, the other was diminished by the sword. Their deaths have spoken of this mystery, let the days do so too. Christ is born, and the days start increasing; John is born, and the days start diminishing. So let man’s honor diminish, God’s honor increase, so that the honor of man may be found in the honor of God.

As the Baptist said, “He must increase.  I must decrease.”

I said, above, “Augustinian sermon”, because s. 380, preached in a year we can’t quite figure out, might not be an authentic sermon of Augustine.  Still, it is certainly Augustine in spirit and style.

Is HE increasing for you today?

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in Look! Up in the sky! and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Comments

  1. Thomas F. Miller Esq. says:

    HE is increasing, and I must decrease, applies only in the northern hemisphere.

    Do not imagine for a moment that our south American and African confreres do not feel the burn of this and other region-centered (ethnocentric?) prejudices.

  2. ProfessorCover says:

    The traditional priest who welcomed me into the Church (more or less), told me once that the Church year—at least the temporal cycle—is suited for the northern hemisphere, but not really for the southern. This remark bothered me, but upon reflection it has to be this way since the faith developed in the northern hemisphere. But I guess it is true that Christmas just is not the same if the days are long and Easter not the same if it is fall rather than spring.

Comments are closed.