Today all creation is filled with joy;

Christ has appeared in the Jordan

The feast of Epiphany on January 5-6 is a most glorious way to begin the new year. It is indeed a feast of re-creation, i.e., making everything in our life new. Fr. Alexander Schmemann reminds us that “the world turned away from God, forgot Him, stopped seeing Him and immersed itself in sin, darkness and death. But God did not forget the world. Here, in His baptism, God returns it to us, shining with the glory of the stars and the beauty it had on the first day of creation. “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me…out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water” (Jn 7:37, 38).

Everything in this world, including matter itself, its very substance, now once again becomes a path toward God, toward communion with him, toward growth in this abundant and eternal life. What we celebrate on this joyful and radiant day of Epiphany is the coming of God to his own creation. “And behold, the heavens were opened to him” (Mt 3:16). We don’t know what exactly John felt when his hands touched the Savior, or how he saw the heavens opened, or how he heard the voice. But that moment was for him undoubtedly one of blinding light, when everything ignited and burst into flame with the joy of creation’s first beauty, as the world once again was revealed as God’s world, purified, washed, reborn, filled with praise and thanksgiving.

“Christ has come to renew all creation.” How important it is to be present on that eve and that day and actually experience this renewal when we see the priest sprinkling the church, us, our homes, San Anselmo Creek, and through it all nature and all the world with new, holy, and divine water! How wonderful it is to see people streaming forward to partake of that living water which flows into eternal life!