The Feast of Epiphany

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.” We celebrate renewal when we see the priest sprinkling the church, us, our homes, all nature and all the world with new, holy, and divine water; and when we see people streaming forward to partake of that living water which flows into eternal life. And so, let everyone who thirsts come to him and receive the gift of living water, which flows into eternal life!

A Proclamation

The Feast of Epiphany was the traditional time to announce the major feasts and celebrations of the Church for the upcoming year. Before the advent of online calendars.

Blackberries, perpetual calendars, and handheld organizers, the formal announcement by the deacon was the usual way the Church made known the date of Easter and all the celebrations that are dependent upon its date.

Let us recall the year’s culmination, the Pascha of the Lord: His Last Supper, His Crucifixion, His Burial, and His Rising, celebrated between May 2 and May 5. From Pascha are reckoned all the days we keep holy.

Forgiveness vespers, the beginning of Lent, will occur on March 17. Pure Week will be March 18-March 22. To Jesus Christ, who was, who is, and who is coming, Lord of time and history, be endless praise, forever and ever. Amen.