~Our Blessing of the Waters Ceremony here in Town ~
The Feast of Theophany is more ancient than that of Christ’s Nativity on 25 December – see more below. We had a nice little feast following the ceremony. It was a very joyous day despite a bit of drizzly weather.
The Feast of Theophany is more ancient than that of Christ’s Nativity on 25 December. In fact, the sources point to 6 January as the date when the Church celebrated Christ’s birth (and the adoration of the Magi) together with His baptism in the Jordan. These events – of the greatest significance not only in the life of Christ but in the “economy” of our salvation – were united in one commemoration known as Theophany. This, in turn, means “manifestation of God.” The Feast is also referred to as Epiphany, which simply means “manifestation.” In His Nativity and in His Baptism, Christ is manifested or revealed to the world as the Light of the world in order to dispel the darkness of ignorance and spiritual blindness which are the direct result of sin:
O Word all shining, sent forth from the Father,
Thou art come to dispel utterly the dark and evil night
And the sins of mortal men,
And by Thy Baptism to draw up with Thee, O blessed Lord,
Bright sons and daughters from the streams of Jordan.
(Second Canon of Matins of Theophany)
It was in the fourth century that the Christian East began to celebrate our Lord’s Nativity and the adoration of the Magi as a separate and unique event on 25 December, while 6 January remained as the Feast of Theophany on which Christ’s Baptism was commemorated. Why did the Feast of 6 January retain the title of Theophany-Epiphany instead of 25 December, when the manifestation of the eternal Light was first revealed in His Nativity in the flesh? St. John Chrysostom writes: ” … because it was not when He was born that He became manifest to all, but when He was baptized; for up to this day He was unknown to the majority.”
But not only was the Lord Jesus revealed to the world as He began His public ministry with His Baptism in the Jordan at the hands of St. John the Forerunner. The Holy Trinity was manifested, for the “voice of the Father” bore witness to His beloved Son, and the Spirit, “in the form of a dove,” descended and rested upon the Son. The trinitarian nature of God was manifested when Christ came to the Jordan to be baptized. As it is written in The Synaxarion under 6 January:
Today the Father and the Holy Spirit witness jointly and severally that the man emerging
from the waters is the only Son and Word of God, Who, by His Incarnation, has revealed
to us the Glory of God and has given us to know that the unique divine nature is, in a
manner beyond all utterance, shared – without being divided – by the Father, the Son and
the Holy Spirit. The Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God: not three
Gods, but three Persons (hypostaseis) in a single nature (ousia). Like three suns or three
luminaries, they are united without confusion in their single light. This mystery of mysteries,
inaccessible alike to human thought and to the contemplation of the angels, has been made
known to us by Our Lord Jesus Christ through His baptism in the Jordan and His ‘baptism”
into death, and not simply in an external manner, for He has made us participants in it.
Accordingly, this Feast of Theophany is also referred to as the “Feast of Lights.” The Christian vocation is to partake of the threefold light of the One God, a process that begins in the mystery of holy Baptism.
Yet, if Baptism is for the “remission of sins,” then why is Christ baptized, for He is without sin (cf. I PET. 2:22)? The liturgical texts repeatedly ask and answer this question for us in the following manner:
Though as God He needs no cleansing, yet for the sake of fallen man He is cleansed in
the Jordan.
As a man He is cleansed that I may be made clean.
Christ is representative of all humanity. He is baptized for our sake. It is we who are cleansed and regenerated when He descends into the waters of the Jordan. For with Christ, and in Christ, our human nature – the human nature He assumed in all of its fullness in the Incarnation – descends into the cleansing and purifying waters of the Jordan (anticipating holy Baptism), so that the very same human nature may ascend out of the waters renewed, restored and recreated. As the New and Last Adam He “sums up” all of us in Himself – for this reason He became man. The Spirit descends and rests upon Christ, so that our humanity may be anointed in Him. St. Athanasios writes: ” … when He is anointed .. we it is who in Him are anointed … when He is baptized, we it is who in Him are baptized.” Every baptism is an “extension,” a participation, in the one, unique Baptism of Christ; just as every Eucharist is an “extension,” a participation in the one, unique Mystical Supper. Actually, all of creation participates and is sanctified by the manifestation of God’s Son in the flesh:
At Thine appearing in the body, the earth was sanctified, the waters blessed,
the heaven enlightened.
We die to sin in Baptism and are raised to new life – for this reason the baptismal font is both tomb and womb as St. Cyril of Jerusalem tells us. An attention reading of the following excerpts from a homily of St. Gregory of Nyssa On Baptism, will eloquently reveal to us the nature of the baptismal grace we once received and the need to spiritually struggle in order to manifest that grace in our lives:
When discussing baptism and spiritual birth, we have to consider what happens to our lives
following baptism. This is a point which many of those who approach the grace of baptism
neglect; they delude themselves by being born in appearance only and not in reality. For
through birth from above, our life is supposed to undergo a change. But if we continue in
our present sinful state then there is really no change in us. Indeed, I do not see how a
man who continues to be the same can be considered to have become different when there
is no noticeable change in him.
Now the physically born child certainly shares his parents’ nature. If you have been born of
God and have become His child, then let your way of life testify to the presence of God
within you. Make it clear who your Father is! For the very attributes by which we recognize
God are the very marks by which a child of His must reveal his relationship with God. ‘God
is goodness and there is no unrighteousness in Him.’ ‘The Lord is gracious to all … He loves
His enemies.’ ‘He is merciful and forgives transgressions.’ These and many other characteristics
revealed by the Scripture are what make a Godly life.
If you are like this and you embody the Spirit of God, then you have genuinely become a child
of God, but if you persist in displaying evil, then it is useless to prattle to yourself and to others
about your birth from above. You are still merely a son of man, not a son of the Most High God!
You love lies and vanity, and you are still immersed in the corruptible things of this world. Don’t
you know in what way a man becomes a child of God? Why in no other way than by becoming holy!
O Christ our God Who has revealed Thyself, glory to Thee!
The Annual Home Observance
Who was Saint Basil?
