1. THEOPHANY (OR EPIPHANY) AND CHRISTMAS. Theophany is one of the far-reaching Feasts of the Lord of the ecclesiastical engagement. It is moreover called Epiphany and the Day of Lights and is inordinate on the 6th of January. The names of this Festival gesture the understanding of the ancient Minster on the way to this Festival. This understanding is joined with the take the wind out of your sails of God, that is, the sign of the One God in Trinity upfront the Transformation of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, Theophany comprises the natural of Christ and the important actions (e.g. the visitation of the Magi) and moreover the beginning of the fill sign of the made flesh frugality of the Son of God which is joined with the Naming of Christ in the Jordan by John the Baptizer.
In the 4th century AD, Christmas was alienated from Theophany and constituted a fraction Festival, which was inordinate on the 25th of December. This separation had been adopted in the Western Minster, which was at that time ally with the Eastern Churches. The same as so Theophany was moral joined with the Naming of Christ, i.e. with the beginning of the fill ministry of Christ upfront which he became the Redeemer and Savior of the world. The be suspicious of that arises popular is why was Christ baptized? Why did this lean place and what is its deeper meaning?
2. THE Naming OF CHRIST AND THE Examine OF Naming
A) THE Longest OF JOHN THE EVANGELIST. In the Gospel of St. John we find the exceed hints on the subject of the finish equal amid the Naming of Christ and the Examine of Naming. St. John the Forerunner speaks about the Naming in water which he administered according to the divine talent and explains that the coming Christ would change it now launch in the Disposition so that upfront it at all beings would basic now the nation of God: "John repel get the message and believed that he saw the Disposition downhill counterpart a Dove from fantasy and hidden upon Christ. He moreover believed the he did not know him [i.e. Christ - until that greatest], but He who sent him to suggest had believed that on whom he would see the Disposition downhill and hidden upon him, he would be the One who momentum suggest in the Sanctified Disposition. John moreover believed that he saw this and repel get the message to it, namely, that he is [the Christ] the Son of God" (1:32-34). Acid the identical was acknowledged by the Lord himself in the role of he believed to Nicodemus: "Amen, amen I say to you, unless one is inherent of water and Disposition, one cannot basic the nation of God" (3:5). These words of the Lord craft the back at the ranch of the holy tune of Naming, upfront which at all beings become Christians. The wire of the Sanctified Disposition, so, at the Naming of Christ, revealed the tune of Christ which Christ instituted and operates upfront the Sanctified Disposition. It is the Naming which the Lord delivered to his holy disciples as a basic element of their ministry in the world.
B) THE Longest OF THE EVANGELISTS MATTHEW AND Blemish. In the two synoptic Evangelists, Matthew and Blemish, show is an explicit pronouncement about the requisite of the tune of Naming as a set-up of articulate of at all beings in the trade-in which Christ offers. This appears in the narrate of the Risen Lord to his Disciples to preach the Gospel and suggest at all beings over and done with the world. In other words, he asked them to prepare at all beings now their new and nation finish equal with the one God in Trinity which was definitively revealed at his Naming in the Jordan by John the Baptizer in the name of the Twitch and the Son and the Sanctified Disposition. "Go, so, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Twitch and the Son and the Sanctified Disposition, teaching them to scan all fill with pack which I commanded to you" (28:18-20). Blemish the Evangelist states the identical in a briefer way. "Go to the whole world and preach the Gospel to the finish assembly. Whoever believes you and is baptized momentum be saved" (16:15-16).
It is juicy, so, that the tune of Naming which Christ instituted by rewarding and transforming the Naming of John the Baptizer is the beginning of our reconnection with our source, who is the over and perfecter of our trade-in. To understand the deeper meaning of this trade-in we want pay consideration to the listing that the Gospel narratives supply on the way to the Naming of the Lord in the Jordan.
3. THE DEEPER Relevance OF THE Naming OF CHRIST AND THE Examine OF Naming.
A) MAN'S Restore TO THE Remedy GOD. The Naming of the Forerunner was a "launch of repentance," which signaled man's return to God by chastise to the divine momentum. It was deep in view of the coming of the Messiah and the nation of God which He would bring now the world. It was a questionnaire of preface and table which looked towards God's bureau upfront the Messiah, that is, the free of at all beings and the gift of the Sanctified Disposition. This is highest patently manifested in the words of Christ to John the Baptist, "This is deep, so that all morality may perhaps be inclusive" (Matth. 3:15). So, in the role of Christ came forth to produce the launch of John as a man, he standard the divine momentum on behalf of the finish generosity. And so, the get the message of the tasty Twitch which recognized him as His dearest Son and the wire of the Sanctified Disposition in a corporeal carriage "in the form of a Dove" signaled the acceptance of Christ by the Twitch as the Messiah who would bring the nation of God now generosity. This nation was by and large and for the most part represented by the communion of the Sanctified Disposition, as the far-seeing Isaiah had foretold: "Jacob is my son and I momentum lean him up. Israel is my get into, whom my individual has standard, and to whom I gave my Disposition so that he may perhaps tell on with the nations"(42:1).
B) THE Humanity OF CHRIST AS THE Floor OF MAN'S Savior. Moreover the acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah as well as the wire of the Sanctified Disposition upon him abate to his generosity, which he supposed for our sake, and prepared it the foundation of our free and trade-in. As the ecclesiastical hymnology declares:
"Having put on the form of the servant, O Christ, you came forth to be baptized by a servant in the waters of Jordan, so that you may redeem from the ancient slavery and make sacred and let somebody know all of us at all beings" (Vespers of the eve of Theophany)."
"It is redemption that Christ is coming forth to bring to all believers upfront his launch. Such as upfront this, he purifies Adam, he raises the fallen, he puts to disrepute the persecutor who caused the fall, he opens the declare, he brings down the Sanctified Disposition, and he grants incorruption and articulate" (8th Elevate)."
"In our time the Lord comes to the waters of Jordan, and says to John: Be not shy for baptizing me, in the role of I came to distribute Adam the protoplast" (Oikos)."
"As man you came to the flood, O Christ, King, and you occasion to produce launch from the hands of the Forerunner, for our sins, O Aficionado of mankind" (Sophronios of Jerusalem)!"
C) THE Clarification OF THE ONE GOD IN TRINITY AND HIS COMMUNION Surrounded by MAN. In the attach investigation, immobile, what happened in the Jordan refers to the idol of Christ, and exceedingly to his eternal filial village, which reveals the mystery of the Sanctified Trinity. Christ is the eternal Son of the Twitch who moreover became man in order to bring man back to the nation of the Sanctified Trinity. It is for this basis that the Examine of Naming which grants to us rekindling and brings us now the life of Christ is inordinate in the name of the Sanctified Trinity, of the Twitch and the Son and the Sanctified Disposition. The nosh-up of Theophany, so, refers not free to man's return to the true God, the source and Redeemer upfront Christ, but moreover to the take the wind out of your sails of the mystery of God, i.e. to the truth that God is one in Trinity and as such he want be worshiped. As the ecclesiastical hymnology states it:
"To the same degree you were baptized in the Jordan, O Lord, it was so, that the adore of the Sanctified Trinity was manifested. Such as it was so that the prepare of the Begetter repel get the message by talent you His Baby Son. And so moreover, that the Disposition in the form of a Dove acknowledged the pledge of the word. We exalt You in Your Epiphany, O Christ, as the God who enlightens the world" (Apolytikion)."
"You manifested yourself to the world today, and your light, O Lord, was mottled upon us who mention you with full understanding" (Kontakion)."
The reason about the One God in Trinity is moreover the basis for the nosh-up of Theophany while called the nosh-up of "The Lights." The Lights in this file are the three blessed nation of the Twitch, the Son and the Sanctified Disposition, who are one divine Glow unapproachable!
4. THE Pungent Blessing OF THE WATERS. The Pungent Blessing of the Waters, which is observed on the eve and on the day of Theophany, is a talent to celebration of the Naming of Christ in the Jordan by John the Baptist and the blessing of the waters which was done by Christ at that time. Saint John Chrysostom speaks about this Pungent Blessing of the nosh-up of Theophany and says that the sacred water was cool by the dedicated and second hand for purifications, foundation, healing, etc. We completed its be of interest in the role of we summon up the words of the prayer which the priest offers at the epiclesis (prayer) of the Sanctified Disposition and the blessing of the water: "...and make it a source of incorruption, a gift of blessing, a cash in of sins, a bind of maladies, a total destruction of demons, unreachable to the differing powers, a plenitude of pious forte..." To the same degree is expressly sober in this file is the repentance and the fasting which is observed on the eve of the Festival. To the same degree we produce the sacred water of the Pungent Blessing with defective spirit and true anticipate, so it firmly becomes a healing set-up of individual and individual and curse of all differing powers.
The nosh-up of the Theophany is an call to new life and return to the Lord of revel, who humbled himself, nevertheless he was God, and became man - a true man, sinless, velvety and benevolent, the way, the truth and the life. Let us chase him on the path of morality, downcast with his all-holy Close relative the Theotokos, St. John the Baptist, the holy Apostles and all the Saints.
