This is Life!: Revolutions Around the Cruciform Axis

The Holy Theophany of Our God and Savior Jesus Christ

Troparion of the Theophany Tone 1
When Thou wast baptized in the Jordan, O Lord,
the worship of the Trinity made its appearance.
For the voice of the Father bore witness to Thee
when He called Thee His beloved Son.
And the Spirit in the form of a dove
confirmed the truth of the word.
O Christ our God, Who hast appeared and hast enlightened the world,
glory to Thee!

Kontakion of the Theophany Tone 4
Thou hast appeared today to the world,
and Thy light, O Lord, has been signed upon us
who with full knowledge sing to Thee.
Thou hast come, Thou hast appeared,
O Unapproachable Light.

From Dynamis on 4 January:

When water is blessed at Theophany, the Priest says, "Thou art our God Who didst cleave the rock in the wilderness, so that the waters gushed out and the valleys overflowed, thus satisfying Thy thirsty people."

How is this so? When the Lord entered the waters of Jordan, He sanctified every drop of water on the face of the whole earth. For the Faithful, water no longer is a mere object to be used or abused, as a lifeless thing. Rather, now, water is a sanctified medium for spiritual cleansing, for blessing, and for healing - because it has touched the sacred flesh of the Lord Christ.

In being baptized, the Lord Jesus not only gave us an example to follow - to be Baptized ourselves, but also prepared all the waters of the earth that they might be used of God to give us His thirst-quenching Holy Spirit Who "doth overflow with streams and passages of grace."

And from today's Dynamis:

Our Illumination is He Who doth illumine every man (Jn. 1:9), Christ our God. He is the Creator of the world "Who didst appear in the world, to lighten them that sit in darkness." He Who is Light began this existence by bringing forth light, dividing it from darkness, and calling these two creations "Day" and "Night." Thus, because of two acts, creation and His Divine Theophany in this created world, we know two kinds of light - uncreated, or Divine Light and created light which He made in many forms. Created light now serves our physical need to see but also provides a means for understanding uncreated Light as well as the other energies of God. . .

Mankind is a changeable creation, always in flux and mutating, which disrupts our ability to establish a renewing relationship with God. However, as Vladimir Lossky says, the "uncreated, eternal, divine, and deifying light is grace...[the] divine energies as they are given to us and accomplish the work of our deification....Being the light of the divinity, grace cannot remain hidden or unnoticed, acting in man, changing his nature, entering into a more and more intimate union with him...revealing to man the face of the living God, and....those who are worthy of it attain the sight of the 'kingdom of God come with power' in this life, as the three apostles saw it on Mount Tabor." While the Light of God does not change, His grace or energies change us, moving us toward illumination and stability in Him by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our task is to purify ourselves by faith through ascetic labors, as St. Makarios of Egypt says, "If through faith and effort we are enabled to become partakers of the Holy Spirit, then to a corresponding degree our bodies also will be glorified on the last day. For what is now treasured up within the soul will then be revealed outwardly in the body." As God guides us toward our intended goal in Light, it is His Light that He uses to guide us toward the Light.

The most difficult obstacle facing us in our efforts to become glorified through God's ineffable light is the allure of the immediate and distracting pleasures of the flesh and our inner instability and restlessness. God, however, reminds us repeatedly in Scripture that He has called us to be children of the Light and heirs of eternal good things and that at present we are 'on the Way.' However, in the words of the Baptismal service, we have to "prove ourselves as children of the Light." Let us not take our eyes off the end toward which we are striving.

The Theophany of our Lord is a gracious reminder from God that we are not merely material beings, but creatures also able to participate in the immaterial world all around us. The Saints teach us to open our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies to the uncreated Light, for as St. Gregory of Thessalonika says, He who participates in this Light "...is united to the Light and with the Light he sees in full consciousness all that remains hidden for those who have not this grace." Illumine us, O Master Who lovest mankind, with the pure light of Thy divine knowledge.

Posted by Clifton at January 6, 2004 06:35 AM | TrackBack