Epiphany.
This Sunday, January 7th, we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord. Epiphany means “manifestation,” and refers to the manifestation of God to His creatures – the manifestation of Jesus as the Messiah of Israel, Son of God and Savior of the world (see Catechism of the Catholic Church 528). Although Epiphany had been celebrated earlier in some areas, since AD 376, the Church universal has celebrated on Epiphany three grand manifestations of the Divinity of Jesus: (1) the coming of the wise men (the three kings), the first Gentiles to adore the Infant God (Mt. 2:11); (2) the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan where the voice of the Eternal Father proclaims Him as, “My Beloved Son” (Mt. 3:17, Mk.1:11, Lk. 3:22); and (3) Jesus’ changing water into wine at the marriage feast of Cana, the first of Jesus’ signs which “manifested His glory” (Jn. 2:11), His Divine power, His radiance of the God’s splendor (Heb. 1:3).
In some families and churches, when the
manger scene (creche) is set up, the magi (wise men) are placed quite a
distance away from the manger, and also Baby Jesus is absent from the manger.
In Catholic Churches, at the Midnight Mass of Christmas, the Baby Jesus figure
is then placed in the manger; the same is done at many homes. The Epiphany
tradition is then to move the figures of the magi a little bit closer to the
manger each day, spacing them so that they reach the manger on Epiphany Day. Traditionally
(and still in Catholic Churches), Christmas decorations and the manger scene are
not put out until the week before Christmas, and are left out until after Epiphany.
St. Chromatius of Aquileia (AD 345 to
406/407) says, “Since Jesus was to give a new baptism for the salvation of the
human race and the forgiveness of sin, He deigned to be Himself baptized first,
not in order to put off sins, since He alone had not sinned, but in order to
sanctify the waters of baptism that these might wash away the sins of
believers. For the waters of baptism could never have cleansed believers of
their sins, unless they had first been sanctified by contact with the Lord’s
body. He was baptized, therefore, so that we might be washed clean of sins. He
was immersed in the water so that we might be cleansed of the filth of sin. He
accepted the bath of rebirth so that we might be reborn of water and the Holy
Spirit [Jn. 3:5].”
St. Gregory Nazianzen (AD 329-374) says
that Jesus came “to bury the whole of the old Adam in the water” and to
sanctify the Jordan, the waters of baptism.
“As He is Spirit and flesh, so He consecrates us by Spirit and
water.” St. Paul the Apostle, in Holy Scripture, says the
same: “By one Spirit we were baptized into one body” (1 Cor. 12:13). St. Gregory says, “But further, Jesus goes up
out of the water; for with Himself He carries up the world and sees the heaven
split open which Adam had shut against himself and all his posterity.” Again,
St. Paul, in Scripture, has said the same: “Do you not know that all of us who have been
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism
into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Ro. 6:3-4.) And, “You were buried with Him in baptism, in
which you were also raised with Him through faith” (Col. 2:12). So, St. Gregory says, “Christ is baptized;
let us also go down with Him, and rise with Him.”
This glorious Feast of the Baptism of the Lord closes the Christmas Season. This is when Catholic churches take down the Christmas decorations. Is it counter-cultural, counter-commercial to relish Christmas until after Epiphany? You bet!
Dibby Allan Green