Although this third sermon may seem to have been compiled by the most learned Maurists from sermons of various Fathers—chiefly of Augustine—in the Paris edition of the Works of St. Ambrose, vol. I, p. 394, in the year 1690, we nevertheless judge that it can confidently be defended, on the authority of a number of ancient manuscripts, that St. Maximus alone was its author. For they bear an inscription of this kind: A sermon of St. Maximus the bishop, from the source above—namely the codices Vaticanus 4222, p. 34; Santa Croce in Gerusalemme 99, sermon 12; Vallicellianus VI, p. 56; Cassinensis 106, p. verso; Lucensis 81; and the Neapolitan of St. John ad Carbonariam. What then? Was it not permissible for St. Maximus to follow and expound the opinions of Augustine? This indeed may be said of Maximus, who was later in age than Augustine;
but concerning Ambrose, whom Augustine heard, it cannot be said. Nonetheless the same sermon is found placed among the sermons of St. Ambrose as no. 4. True is what St. John the Baptist says of the Lord and Savior, when he declares: 'He must increase, but I must decrease' (John 3:30). Indeed this is confirmed even by the very seasons of the year. For behold, at the Nativity of Christ the day increases, and at the nativity of John it decreases. When He rises, the light grows; when this one is born, it is diminished. For the very seasons in a manner serve their own parts: when they suffer loss, the servant is begotten; but when the Lord is born, they receive increase.
The days plainly make increase when the Savior of the world rises, and suffer diminution when the last prophet is born. For it is written: 'The Law and the Prophets were until John' (Luke 16). And therefore it was necessary that the observance of the Law should be darkened where the grace of the Gospel shone forth, and that the prophecy of the Old Testament should cease when the glory of the New Testament succeeded it. Therefore at the Nativity of the Lord the day increases. It is no wonder if the day increases in which the new Sun of righteousness gleams. It is no wonder if that day increases which the most splendid light of truth illumines. For the evangelist says of Christ the Lord: 'He was the true light, which enlightens every man' (John 1).
Therefore, if He was the true light which enlightens every man, why should He not illumine the world? And so the day which brought forth light to the human race first itself shone with the radiance of that same light, and, having now closed off its own spaces in the darkness of night, dispelled them with the brightness of the Lord's light. For the length of the nights had occupied the whole day, had not the coming of Him who by His rising scatters the darkness of the sins of the human race shone forth in that very shortness of the day: thus He both cut away the shadows of gloom on His birthday, and by one and the same rising brought light alike to men and to the days. Whence it is no wonder if that day increases which is clothed with a twofold splendor of brightness. But let us see still further how it is.
The Lord and Savior increases, John the Baptist decreases. We have said above that John indeed bore the figure of the Law and the prophets; it was necessary therefore that the Law should fail when the Gospel gleamed forth, and that the Jewish people should be diminished as the Christian people arose. For who doubts that at the Nativity of the Lord the assemblies of the Synagogue were emptied, and the peoples of the Church multiplied, and that in a wondrous way Christ daily increases through His Christians, while John is diminished through the Jews; that we shine with the splendor of the Lord's day, while they labor in the obscurity of the nights? For night has in a manner more heavily fallen upon the Jews, from the time when they said concerning the slaying of the Savior: 'His blood be upon us and upon our children' (Matt. 27).
They are plainly darkened with the greater shadows of night, from the time when they attempted to make the day of truth set. But that we may more truly confirm what we are saying, let us briefly set forth the nativity of each. For behold, when Christ is born, the angels exult, the shepherds keep watch, the magi come, the star goes before, and all the fairest things in heaven and on earth are offered to the Lord Himself. For to Him are offered glory through the angels, brightness through the star, religious homage through the magi, simplicity; and because with Him alone all these things were to be in the future, therefore at His birth all things serve Him. But when John is conceived, Zechariah is struck dumb, the solemn priest falls silent, Elizabeth the mother is hidden away;
signifying, after his birth, the silence of the Law, the loss of the priesthood, the hiding-away of the Synagogue. There is no doubt that John by his birth took away from the Pharisees the righteousness of the Law, and that by his conception he took from his father the compliance of his voice. The Lord therefore always increases, John the Baptist is diminished. He is not diminished as though anything were withdrawn from his merits, but because, as the Savior is daily magnified, his glory seems to become less. John is finally called a lamp, the Lord saying: 'He was a burning lamp' (John 5). The light of a lamp therefore is obscured when the ray of the sun shines forth; and it suffers a certain failing of its flame when it is overcome by the splendor of a brighter light. For what wise man seeks a lamp in the sunlight?
It is not indeed extinguished, but it is not held to be necessary: that is, who would come to John's baptism of repentance, when he can be saved by the Savior's baptism? That former baptism is not indeed reproved; but this latter seems more useful and necessary, because in it the remission of sins is granted.