Feast of the Theophany
Posted by admin on Jan 6th, 2007
The Eastern Church maybe does it better. Epiphany that is. The Latin rite hints at it in the office for this day, yet the significance is virtually obscured for the average person, and rarely have I heard a priest discuss this in his homily. Unless you are extremely liturgically sensitive in your prayer, you may miss the riches of the feast of the Epiphany.
In the West we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord on the following day of the observance of Epiphany. Although we do not have a separate feast for the Miracle at Cana.
These three theophanies, or manifestations of the divinity of Christ are subtlety embodied within the liturgy for the feast of the Epiphany, which enlightens and deepens our prayer. (Once again proving the necessity for the Sacred Humanity of Christ to be the door that leads to authentic contemplation of the Divinity.)
“We keep this day holy in honor of three miracles:this day a star led the Wise Men to the manger;this day water was turned into wine at the marriage feast; this day Christ chose to be baptized by John in the Jordan, for our salvation, allelulia.” Magnificat antiphon.
It is much more important than merely a feast of Christmas - more so than most understand…perhaps that is why we celebrate the next day, as a separate liturgical feast, The Baptism of the Lord.
This day, The Lord revealed Himself as God…so clearly…yet people continue to reject Him, and even abandon Him for pastures unknown. Maybe because, in some instances, He just doesn’t fit their idea of God…and they no longer recognize their Master, as the ox and the ass were able to do - because these beasts of burden were humble and simple - accustomed to obedience. The highest Angel - Satan - could not even tolerate the mystery of the Incarnation in this Theophany, much less God’s plan of salvation.
Ah! Love is so not loved!
