Season of Theophany 2005

On the last and 12th Day, Christmas is made fully known to all creation in an epiphany called Theophany:

Also called the Festival of Epiphany or Festival of Lights, the Oriental Church names Jan. 6 Danaha, meaning Dawn: the truth and glory of the Holy Trinity is revealed to the cosmos and become manifest to our own human senses.

With the shepherds we held the Babe in the Manger; now with John on the 12th Day we behold the Lamb of God in the Jordan, while the Spirit descends like a dove today, and the Father bears witness to the Son.

All the mysteries of water "in the beginning" of Genesis, continuing in the Flood and Noah and flowing around Moses in the Nile -- and to the Red Sea, and the rock in the desert, and indeed the Ark crossing the Jordan itself -- are contained in these Jordan waters today. The Lord is submerged today in all its history. And again today the Master changes its course in history: the waters and the cosmos itself are reborn today as the Lord emerges from below.

Mt 4: 12-22. The First Sunday after the Baptism of the Lord
Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, He departed to Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:

The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles:
The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,
And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death
Light has dawned.

From that time Jesus began to preach and to say,
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

With the angels we sing today:

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to all ~

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Cosmos!
Fr. Michael +